Coinbase urges stablecoin tax overhaul; seeks de minimis and wash-sale delay

Coinbase is urging lawmakers to reform stablecoin tax rules and ease crypto compliance. In testimony to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on June 9, Coinbase tax VP Lawrence Zlatkin said current stablecoin taxes force users to calculate gains and losses for everyday spending and blockchain gas fees, creating paperwork with limited fiscal impact. Key asks in the stablecoin taxes overhaul include treating U.S.-dollar-pegged, federally regulated stablecoins “at par” for tax purposes, so transfers for payment would not automatically trigger taxable events. Coinbase also supports expanding a de minimis exemption, including waiving tax reporting for small gas fees up to $10, to reduce per-transaction gain calculations. Coinbase backed broader tax simplifications for staking and mining by deferring taxation on newly created assets until sale. For wash-sale rules, Coinbase warned that immediate enforcement is technically difficult because crypto trades continuously across centralized exchanges, DEX liquidity pools, and self-custody wallets, without a unified data system. Coinbase requested an 18–24 month implementation runway to lower reporting errors and potential IRS audit risk. For crypto traders, this signals a more operationally realistic path for stablecoin taxes, which could reduce friction for routine usage—though timing and eventual law details remain uncertain.