U.S. Intends to Impose Tax on Crypto to Support Infrastructure Construction Amid Musk and Dorsey Express Strong Dissatisfaction

As the bipartisan Senate began to vote on President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill, the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions in this infrastructure plan cited Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Senator Criticism by Ted Cruz, and others.

The Senate released a bill last week that includes new tax rules for crypto trading companies and brokers, which may bring about $28 billion in new taxes for the US government. The White House revealed that this new tax revenue would invest in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package. 

As reported by Blockchain. News, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen lobbied the lawmakers directly to strengthen cryptocurrency tax provisions in the infrastructure bill.

On August 9th today, Republican Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that due to differences between the two parties in the United States on spending, the Democratic Party opposed the crypto tax amendment proposed by the Republican Party:

“Crypto got screwed tonight. There’s a partisan disagreement on spending, so Dems objected to all further amendments.That means NO vote on Wyden-Lummis to lessen the damage this bill will do to crypto, & NO vote on the Cruz amd. to repeal the new crypto rules altogether.“

The amendment aims to reduce the size of the cryptocurrency taxation group to protect the interests of miners, pledgers, and crypto application developers.

As early as last Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz expressed his concerns about the proposed crypto taxation and said on Saturday that:

"The infrastructure deal contains DANGEROUS provisions that would devastate crypto and blockchain innovation"

However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the legislation too "hasty" and said that this is not the time for US legislators to "choose technological winners or losers".

The CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey, stated that a hearing could be held in response to the proposal made by Ron Wyden, Cynthia Lummis, and Pat Toomey on the "cryptocurrency broker" to clarify the definitions. He also stated that this new tax would drive technological innovation out of the United States.