Next up, taxes: Crypto tax legislation circulated ahead of House Ways and Means Committee hearing next week

As cryptocurrency-related bills from regulating stablecoins to the market as a whole take center stage in Washington, now comes how to tax those assets.

Ahead of a hearing next week to discuss crypto taxation, seven bill proposals are floating from the House Ways and Means Committee that would tackle issues on how to tax stablecoins, staking to mining, and also decrease tax demands for certain transactions.

The Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone said the crypto advocacy group looks forward to working with lawmakers to "strengthen the drafts and deliver the tax clarity and fairness digital assets deserve."

"We're encouraged to see the suite of discussion drafts released by the House Ways & Means Committee," Carbone said in a statement. "Next Tuesday's legislative hearing is a welcome opportunity to refine these proposals and keep the bipartisan tax effort moving forward."

Over the past year, Congress has focused heavily on crypto regulation. Lawmakers passed legislation establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins last year, while attention has increasingly shifted to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or Clarity Act, which would create the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for the crypto industry.

At the same time, lawmakers have also floated ideas and legislation to clarify how cryptocurrencies should be taxed. Last year, on the Senate side, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo, introduced legislation to modernize the tax treatment of digital assets, which includes a de minimis provision to exclude gains or losses from crypto transactions that are under $300 from being taxed and declares that digital asset lending is not a taxable event, among other measures.

On the House side, Reps. Max Miller, R-Ohio, and Steven Horsford, D-Nev., released in December a draft text called the Digital Asset PARITY Act that would exempt transactions involving regulated, dollar-pegged stablecoins worth less than $200 from capital gains taxes—a provision designed to eliminate compliance burdens on everyday purchases.

Crypto taxes have been notoriously complicated. This past tax season, the Internal Revenue Service rolled out a new reporting system that confused investors.

Proposals from the House Ways and Means Committee would set de minimis limits for network fees and would also simplify accounting for gains and losses, according to the draft text.

A spokesperson for the committee did not respond to a request for comment on next steps and if crypto tax bills would be included in legislation that has to pass this year. The hearing to discuss taxation is on June 9.