House to Review Seven Crypto Tax Bills on Staking, Fees

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a public hearing Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET on Capitol Hill to review seven Republican draft bills that change tax rules for digital assets. The session will be livestreamed on the committee’s YouTube channel.

The measures include proposals to alter when staking and mining rewards are taxed, to exempt small network fees from tax reporting up to $10 per fee on as many as 5,000 transactions per year, and to provide a two-year safe harbor for taxpayers who failed to report past crypto gains. House Republican leadership circulated the drafts last week.

Tax and policy officials from Fidelity, Coinbase, Coin Center and New York University Law’s Tax Law Center are scheduled to testify. Committee members will question witnesses on how the rules would work in practice and which draft provisions are ready for legislative markup.

Under current IRS guidance, staking rewards are treated as taxable when received; some of the House drafts would permit deferral of tax until rewards are sold. Senator Cynthia Lummis previously proposed allowing miners and stakers to postpone taxation until sale, an approach reflected in portions of the draft language.

One bill would create a de minimis exemption for small payment network fees, excluding up to $10 per fee on up to 5,000 transactions annually from reporting requirements. Supporters say the change would reduce reporting for routine, low-value payments. Another bill would create a two-year safe harbor for certain taxpayers who did not report past crypto gains, subject to conditions in the draft text.

Stablecoin policy and payment treatment remain separate topics in the broader debate. The GENIUS Act established a federal framework for stablecoins last July; some industry groups and backers of major cryptocurrencies have urged lawmakers to extend planned tax relief beyond dollar-pegged tokens so that ordinary crypto payments are not left subject to reporting burdens.

Markus Levin, co-founder of the XYO network, called the absence of clear rules on staking and mining a ‘guessing game’ and argued that focused legislation is preferable to fitting digital assets into existing tax categories. Dan Dadybayo, strategy lead at Horizontal Systems, described the planned hearing as likely to be a ‘constructive, business focused discussion’ aimed at making rules workable.

Dadybayo does not expect Congress to reopen a proposed 1% remittance transfer tax that targets certain cash-funded transfers after Dec. 31, 2025; the proposal would exclude account-based payments processed by stablecoins, ACH, wires and payment processors.

Lawmakers will use the hearing to assess compliance costs, tax timing and reporting burdens and to decide which provisions should move forward. The hearing will create a public record of expert views as Congress considers how to update federal tax treatment for digital assets.