US Crypto Tax Reform 2026: What Congress Wants To Change

Worried about what a wash sale rule for crypto would do to your year-end planning? Congress is considering changes that could affect how crypto investors harvest losses and plan around appreciated positions.

I'm Chris Herbst, Founder of CountDeFi, a global crypto tax reporting firm specializing in complex cryptocurrency taxes and DeFi reconciliations. Since 2017 our team has built filing positions that survive rule changes, not just filing seasons.

I've written this update for US crypto investors with real exposure to the potential outcome of this reform, should it pass: active traders who harvest losses every December, lenders and stakers, anyone with unfiled or incorrect crypto years, and anyone planning a move abroad with unsold coins. I'll walk you through the 4 proposals that matter most, what each would change, and what to do while they are still proposals.

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What Would The 2026 Crypto Tax Bills Change?

On June 9, 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee held a legislative hearing on digital asset taxation covering 6 bills and 2 Democratic proposals, including the End Digital Assets Tax Shelters discussion draft. None of it is law today.

The package pulls in 2 directions at once. Some provisions would give digital assets access to rules securities already enjoy, particularly for lending and professional trading. Others would extend the restrictions securities already carry, particularly around loss harvesting and cross-border planning.

Here is where each proposal would touch your activity:

What Is The PAR Act (H.R. 9176)?

The Providing Analogous Rules for Digital Assets (PAR) Act is the parity play. Rather than inventing new rules, it would extend selected existing ones to qualifying digital assets:

• qualifying digital asset lending could receive treatment similar to securities lending under IRC §1058, meaning the loan itself is not a disposal
• qualifying dealers and traders could elect mark-to-market accounting under IRC §475
• an existing IRC §864(b)(2) trading safe harbor would extend to certain foreign persons trading digital assets in US markets

In our lending client work, the open question has always been whether handing coins to a platform or desk is itself a taxable disposal. §1058-style treatment would settle that for qualifying transactions, while for high-volume traders a §475 election could substantially simplify the tax treatment of covered trading positions by moving them to year-end mark-to-market treatment.

The fine print matters: the bill applies to defined categories of digital assets and transactions. It would not make every token a security for tax purposes. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates H.R. 9176 would raise roughly $1.362 billion over 10 years.

Would The Wash Sale Rule Finally Apply To Crypto (H.R. 9172)?

Under current law the wash sale rule covers stock and securities, not crypto. Or more specifically, crypto wash sales are not expressly within §1091 and the IRS has not issued guidance addressing whether the wash sale rule may apply to them or not.** **H.R. 9172, the Applying Existing Tax Anti-Abuse Rules to Digital Assets Act, would close that door by extending both the wash sale rule and the constructive sale rules to specified digital assets.

That distinction matters. Crypto-related investments that are themselves securities, including shares in spot crypto ETFs, do not get the same treatment simply because their underlying exposure is crypto.

Clients regularly come to us in January having sold in December and rebought within days. H.R. 9172 would bring that kind of transaction within the wash sale rules. Constructive sale treatment would also reach investors who lock in gains through offsetting positions without ever selling.

There is an important timing wrinkle. H.R. 9172 is not law, but as currently drafted its wash sale provisions would generally apply to dispositions after the bill's June 8, 2026 introduction date, rather than only to transactions after enactment. The constructive sale changes carry the same introduction-date effective date. That makes 2026 planning less straightforward than simply assuming the existing treatment will remain available until Congress acts.

The JCT estimates H.R. 9172 would raise roughly $2.074 billion over 2026–36, the largest positive revenue estimate among the 6 bills. For where the line sits under current law, my guide to the crypto wash sale rule covers the current treatment, while my crypto tax loss harvesting guide explains the planning principles investors should understand before making year-end decisions.

Planning year-end moves while Congress debates the rules?

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What Is The Digital Assets Voluntary Disclosure Program Act (H.R. 9174)?

H.R. 9174 would require Treasury to establish a 1-time voluntary disclosure program specifically for taxpayers who failed to comply with digital asset tax rules. Eligible taxpayers would correct their returns, pay the tax and interest, and receive more favorable penalty treatment plus a defined route back into compliance.

To be clear about what it is not: the proposal does not erase the underlying tax or interest, and it does not guarantee zero penalties. Instead, qualifying participants would enter a defined disclosure program with special penalty treatment, with the outcome depending in part on whether the noncompliance was certified as non-willful and how quickly amended returns were filed.

At CountDeFi we already take clients through the IRS's existing disclosure practice, and the hard part is never the form. It is reconstructing the years of wallet and exchange history the disclosure has to stand on. I covered the current process in my IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program guide; a dedicated digital asset route would make that path cheaper and clearer for the people who need it most.

Would Moving Abroad Still Leave You US-Taxed?

The End Digital Assets Tax Shelters discussion draft targets the sourcing of certain digital asset gains in cross-border situations. Under the proposal, a US citizen or resident alien could continue to be treated as a US resident for sourcing purposes on a qualifying digital asset sale if they were a US resident during any of the preceding 10 taxable years and sufficient foreign income tax was not actually paid on the gain.

The proposed threshold is 10% of the gain. This is not a general rule saying anyone who leaves the US remains taxable on every crypto sale for 10 years. It is a specific proposed change to the sourcing rules, designed to prevent certain digital asset gains from escaping US tax through a change in residence.

This is the argument I made in my guide on why moving to Portugal does not end US crypto taxes. The draft would harden that reality into statute: a 0% jurisdiction on the other side would no longer help, because 0% fails the 10% test. It is aimed at digital asset gains in defined cross-border circumstances, not a general rewrite of expatriation tax.

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When Could These Crypto Tax Bills Become Law?

The bills were introduced in early June 2026 and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, which heard them on June 9. The remaining 3 bills round out the package: H.R. 9175 addresses the timing of mining and staking income, H.R. 9173 eases charitable deductions for donated crypto, and H.R. 9178 trims reporting paperwork for smaller holders.

Until any of this moves, you file under the rules currently in force. Here is the full scoreboard: