House Ways and Means Committee advances Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act with overwhelming bipartisan vote

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 38-5 to advance H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, clearing a major legislative hurdle for what could become the most comprehensive overhaul of crypto tax rules in US history.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) on September 14, moved through committee in just two days.

What the bill actually does

At its core, H.R. 10357 tackles one of crypto’s most persistent headaches: the tax treatment of small transaction fees. Under current rules, every time a user pays a network fee to send tokens or interact with a blockchain, that technically constitutes a taxable event. Even if the fee is a few cents.

The bill introduces a de minimis exemption that lets users skip recognizing any gain or loss on digital asset dispositions used to pay network or transaction fees of $10 or less. There’s a guardrail: the exemption only applies if the user hasn’t exceeded 5,000 such transfers in the prior year.

But the legislation goes well beyond gas fees. It also addresses stablecoin basis calculations, an area where tax preparers have been improvising for years. It introduces simplified annual accounting for widely traded digital assets, with those provisions set to take effect in 2028. And it creates new rules for digital asset lending, mining, and staking.

Perhaps most notably, the bill expands wash-sale rules to cover most traded digital assets. Wash-sale rules prevent investors from selling an asset at a loss and immediately repurchasing it to claim a tax deduction. Stocks and bonds have been subject to these rules for decades, but crypto has been exempt.

The math Congress is betting on

The Joint Committee on Taxation projects that H.R. 10357 will generate a net revenue increase of roughly $500 million over fiscal years 2027 to 2036.

The US digital assets market currently exceeds $2 trillion in value, with tens of millions of holders. A $500 million revenue projection over a decade is modest relative to the size of the market.

Eight representatives cosponsored the bill, including Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), giving it cross-party credibility. A 38-5 committee vote is the kind of margin that makes floor passage look increasingly likely.

Why this matters for the broader market

The simplified annual accounting provisions, scheduled for 2028, are particularly significant. Rather than tracking the cost basis of every individual token lot across dozens of wallets and exchanges, investors in widely traded digital assets would be able to use streamlined methods.

The wash-sale expansion cuts the other direction for active traders. Crypto’s exemption from wash-sale rules has been one of the few genuine tax advantages the asset class offered over traditional securities. Losing that edge will force traders to rethink tax-loss harvesting strategies that have become standard practice in crypto portfolio management.

The staking and mining provisions could also reshape how participants in proof-of-stake and proof-of-work networks approach their operations. The current lack of clear guidance has led to widely varying interpretations of when staking rewards become taxable income, whether at receipt or at sale, and how mining expenses should be categorized.

If it reaches the president’s desk in something close to its current form, it would represent the most significant legislative action on crypto taxation since the infrastructure bill’s broker reporting requirements in 2021.