16 September 2026 What to expect in Washington (September 16) The House Ways and Means Committee today (Wednesday, September 16) is holding a markup of:
The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act addresses some of the main issues raised at prior hearings — in a Ways and Means subpanel and at the Senate Finance Committee, in July and October 2025 respectively, and then a full Ways and Means hearing on June 9, 2026, addressing specific crypto tax bills — which include the need for a de minimis rule to exempt certain transactions. The bill provides that no gain or loss is recognized on the disposition of a digital asset in payment of a de minimis network fee or a de minimis transaction fee, if the aggregate amount paid or incurred with respect to the validation of another digital asset transaction does not exceed $10. This addresses the often-cited example that using digital assets to buy a cup of coffee requires tax reporting currently. The de minimis exception does not apply to the disposition of a digital asset by a trader, broker, or dealer in digital assets, those in a similar trade or business, or any person engaged in over 5,000 digital asset transactions during a tax year. There have long been questions about the tax treatment of mining and staking, including whether awards are taxed upon receipt or new digital assets are akin to self-created property and should be taxed upon disposition. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) description said the bill provides that income from digital asset validation supporting activities is treated as ordinary income. Punchbowl News September 15 said that some stakeholders would have been content if the package omitted the issue of the timing component from staking and mining, "But the bill still has language characterizing staking and mining rewards as ordinary income. Parts of the industry say that wording eliminates the possibility of going down other routes to get what they want — to define staking and mining rewards as newly-created property for tax purposes." The report said Ways and Means Republican staff "disagree that the bill will prevent industry from still seeking the newly-created property timing treatment." At the very end of the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act is the text of the FULL HOUSE Act, the bill by Committee members Steven Horsford (D-NV) and Max Miller (R-OH) to roll back the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's (OBBBA) change to IRC Section 165(d) to limit the deduction for wagering losses to 90% of the amount of such losses during a tax year and restore the long-standing rule allowing a 100% deduction of losses against winnings. The rollback would cost nearly $2 billion over 10 years but would be offset by other provisions in the package, which in total would raise $500 million. The EFIN Verification Act was introduced by Committee members Ron Estes (R-KS) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) September 10 and would require validation of electronic filing identification numbers used to electronically file tax returns and other documents.
The September 15 Senate Finance Committee hearing on nominations focused nearly exclusively on the Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee and issues including vaccines. Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) did have comments on the tax nominees — James Gadwood to be IRS Chief Counsel and Andrew De Mello to be a Tax Court judge — in his opening statement. Senator Wyden expressed concern about the IRS immunity deal, weaponization of the IRS, and sharing taxpayers' private information with ICE. On September 11, President Trump signed into law the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act (H.R. 5366) which extends and codifies the Federal tax deduction for qualified disaster-related personal casualty losses and the exclusion from gross income of qualified wildfire relief payments. It was passed by the Senate prior to the August recess and by the House in April. "Previously, taxpayers hit by a federally declared disaster could generally only deduct personal casualty losses if they itemized, and only to the extent those losses exceeded 10 percent of their adjusted gross income," Ways and Means Republicans said in a news release. "The law now lets disaster victims deduct qualified losses above $500 per disaster without itemizing and removes the 10 percent adjusted gross income threshold for those losses. It also extends an exclusion from gross income for wildfire relief payments, so survivors are not taxed on compensation meant to help them rebuild." Reconciliation — The Hill newspaper September 15 reported Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) as saying Senate Republicans will not consider another budget resolution to unlock a reconciliation 3.0 bill until after the election. "That'll probably be a post-election question," he said. The House on July 22 approved a FY2027 budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 113), providing for a $95 billion GOP-only bill focused on defense funding and with some voter ID and farm aid provisions, but reconciliation instructions were not provided to the Ways and Means Committee. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) released a Fiscal Year 2027 budget resolution August 7 with budget reconciliation instructions to several committees, but not to the tax-writing Finance Committee. There hasn't been movement on the Senate measure. It's unclear whether a post-election reconciliation bill could include additional tax proposals and social program integrity provisions, and plans aren't clear. It's also not clear to what extent lawmakers will want to tackle spending cuts or deficit reduction later this year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said September 8, regarding an unspecified deficit reduction plan, that "we would have to rush that through a lame duck [session] as opposed to being able to take more time," creating the expectation that reconciliation could be used in a post-election session if Republicans lose control of one or both chambers of Congress. A September 13 Wall Street Journal story, "Bessent Says the U.S. Can Grow Its Way Out of the Debt Crunch," said as opposed to tax increases or spending cuts, the Administration is focusing on the nation's growth potential to address the deficit. "That is the tale Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and administration officials have touted as the U.S. crossed borrowing milestones, with publicly held debt hitting 100% of gross domestic product and gross debt topping $40 trillion," the story said. "Bessent sketched a scenario where the government benefits from growth fueled by the artificial-intelligence build-out, reshored manufacturing and tax cuts for consumers." Crypto — In a long-anticipated vote Tuesday afternoon (September 15), the Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, a sweeping bill establishing a market structure for cryptocurrency and other digital assets. With 60 votes required to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill, the vote was 49-50, with all Democrats voting against cloture, joined by three Republicans: Susan Collins (ME), Josh Hawley (MO) and Jerry Moran (KS). Despite a flurry of text revisions and counter-offers exchanged by GOP and Democratic negotiators in the hours leading up to the vote, the two sides were ultimately unable to agree on a number of thorny issues, the most prominent being ethics language blocking senior federal officials from holding ownership stakes in crypto companies. Republicans led by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) had offered to allow state attorneys general a role in enforcing the ethics restrictions — a priority for Democrats — but reportedly balked at requiring President Trump to divest his share of his family's crypto companies, which include World Liberty Financial, the USD1 stablecoin and the $TRUMP meme coin. "For all Republicans' talk of compromise, GOP negotiators … never shared the pen with Democrats," Punchbowl News reported yesterday. "Instead, Republicans took Democratic feedback, filtered it and made the changes to the Clarity Act over the course of a year. The result was a grinding process with countless blown deadlines and maximalist politics. At no point in the past 12 months could the Clarity Act have been called a 'bipartisan' product." Finance — On Tuesday (September 15), Treasury Secretary Bessent used his annual appearance before the House Financial Services Committee to defend the Trump administration's economic, financial and foreign policy agenda as Democrats repeatedly challenged him on inflation, rising interest rates, energy costs and the economic consequences of the Iran war. The hearing, which was interrupted several times by anti-war protesters, reached well beyond its focus on the international financial system. Republicans highlighted the administration's efforts to pressure Iran, confront China's economic practices, strengthen the dollar's global role and modernize financial regulation, while Democrats focused on affordability concerns, elevated Treasury yields, tariffs, and questions about whether economic gains are reaching middle- and lower-income households. Bessent generally argued that the administration is restoring growth at home and abroad, pointing to rising wages, manufacturing investment, and stronger multilateral engagement on issues ranging from sovereign debt transparency to sanctions enforcement. Bessent confirmed that Treasury is examining how the President's proposed $5,000 post-election "Trump Dividend" could be implemented, and whether Congress would have to approve them, but offered few details.
Document ID: 2026-1965 | |||
