A bipartisan group in the U.S. House is moving to clean up how crypto is taxed, with a new draft proposal that targets small stablecoin payments and income earned from staking and mining.
Republican Representative Max Miller of Ohio and Democratic Representative Steven Horsford of Nevada are behind the effort, according to a letter jointly sent by both offices on Saturday.
Max and Steven sit on the House Ways and Means Committee, which controls tax policy, and they are the first members of that panel to put forward a written framework dealing only with crypto taxes.
Stablecoin payments under $200 will get capital gains relief under bipartisan tax bill
The lawmakers said they chose to start with stablecoins because Congress has already passed laws governing how those tokens operate.
The draft proposal will also exempt transactions under $200 made with “regulated, dollar‑pegged” stablecoins from capital gains taxes, but the Representatives made it clear that this does not apply to other forms of crypto, and it does not cover trading activity beyond those limited payments.
Max said the current tax system does not match how people actually use crypto today. “America’s tax code has failed to keep pace with modern financial technology. This bipartisan legislation brings clarity, parity, fairness, and common sense to the taxation of digital assets,” he said.
The draft mixes early legislative language with policy goals and has not yet been turned into a formal bill. Steven’s office said the goal is cooperation inside the committee. “The hope is that the committee will work together in good faith to set these critical rules of the road,” a spokesperson said.
The draft also addresses how staking and mining rewards are taxed. Under IRS guidance issued during the Biden administration, those rewards are taxed as income at the moment they are received.
House Republicans argue that approach taxes value before a gain exists. Progressive Democrats argue the rewards function like pay and should be taxed immediately.
Max and Steven propose a middle option. Taxpayers could choose to delay taxes on staking rewards for up to five years. At the end of that period, the rewards would be taxed as income based on their fair market value. The approach differs from a proposal introduced earlier this year by Senator Cynthia Lummis, which would delay taxes until the rewards are sold.
Meanwhile, Max and Steven’s proposal also allows mark‑to‑market accounting, letting traders report unrealized gains and losses each year, which can offset income like wages.
Claim your free seat in an exclusive crypto trading community - limited to 1,000 members.
