Ways and Means Approves Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act
The House Ways and Means Committee voted on 16 September 2026 to advance H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, marking the first time a congressional committee has approved a bill designed to establish a comprehensive federal income tax framework for digital assets. For accounting firms, CFOs, and any business holding crypto on its balance sheet, the bill introduces sweeping changes to stablecoin accounting treatment, wash sale rules, transaction fee relief, and broker reporting. Committee approval is a real milestone, but Senate passage and the approaching mid-term elections keep the bill's fate genuinely uncertain.
What H.R. 10357 Actually Proposes
The Joint Committee on Taxation published its description of the bill on 14 September 2026, two days before the committee vote. The proposals fall into five distinct areas, each with its own effective date and compliance burden.
De minimis fee exemption
Under the bill, no gain or loss would be recognised when digital assets are used to pay network or transaction fees of $10 or less. Today, every on-chain fee is technically a taxable disposal of property under general Internal Revenue Code principles. The exemption is narrow but practically significant: firms that process large volumes of small transactions currently face a documentation headache that is wholly disproportionate to the tax at stake. This provision is expected to take effect in 2028 if the bill is enacted.
Elective annual netting for widely traded digital assets
Taxpayers holding widely traded digital assets could elect to net gains and losses on an annual basis rather than tracking each disposal individually. The trade-off is that all resulting gain or loss under the election is treated as short-term, regardless of actual holding period. For firms with high transaction volumes across multiple wallets and exchanges, the simplification may be worth that cost. For longer-term holders who have accumulated significant unrealised gains, electing annual netting could eliminate favourable long-term capital gains rates, so the decision deserves careful modelling before the provision goes live in 2028.
Stablecoin accounting: no gain or loss on qualifying stablecoins
This is arguably the most commercially significant proposal in the bill. Qualifying stablecoins would be treated as not giving rise to gain or loss on disposal, effectively removing them from the property-disposition framework that has governed all digital assets since IRS Notice 2014-21. The bill does not define "qualifying stablecoin" in the excerpt available, so practitioners will need to watch the statutory text closely once it advances. If enacted, this provision would begin in 2027. For any firm already holding USDC, USDT, or similar instruments for treasury or payment purposes, proper stablecoin accounting today still matters: the provision is not retroactive to all disposals, and positions taken before the effective date remain subject to existing rules.
Wash sale rules extended to digital assets
Current law excludes digital assets from the wash sale rules under IRC Section 1091, which were designed for securities. The bill would extend those rules to traded digital assets, meaning a loss on a digital asset sale would be disallowed if the same or a substantially identical asset is acquired within 30 days before or after the sale. This is the provision with the most immediate compliance risk. According to the Forvis Mazars analysis, the wash sale rules could reach disposals already made in 2026, depending on the effective date written into the final statute. Firms and individuals who have been harvesting crypto losses this year and repurchasing quickly should document those trades carefully now and be prepared to revisit loss positions if the bill passes.
Charitable contribution changes and broker reporting
The bill also addresses charitable contributions of digital assets and makes changes to broker reporting obligations, though both provisions are slated for 2027 and 2028 respectively. The broker reporting changes build on the framework introduced by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which expanded the definition of "broker" to cover digital asset intermediaries. H.R. 10357 would layer additional requirements onto that foundation.
Staggered Effective Dates: A Compliance Calendar
Knowing which provisions could apply when is essential for planning. Based on the available information, the timeline looks like this:
| Provision | Expected Effective Date |
|---|---|
| Wash sale rules for digital assets | Potentially 2026 (from bill introduction date) |
| Stablecoin gain/loss treatment | 2027 |
| Charitable contribution changes | 2027 |
| De minimis fee exemption | 2028 |
| Elective annual netting | 2028 |
| Broker reporting changes | 2028 |
The wash sale provision stands apart from the rest. Some provisions in the bill would take effect as of the bill's introduction date, which means trades executed in 2026 could be caught if the bill is enacted. That is an unusual legislative approach and creates a retroactive compliance exposure that practitioners cannot simply defer until 2027 to address.
What This Means for Accounting Firms and CFOs
Re-examine existing loss-harvesting activity now
Any client or corporate treasury that has been selling digital assets at a loss and repurchasing to maintain exposure needs a wash sale review conducted today, not after enactment. If the bill passes with an introduction-date effective date for wash sales, amended returns or revised position tracking could be required for transactions already completed in 2026. Waiting until the bill clears the Senate creates unnecessary risk.
Stablecoin balance sheet classification may need revisiting
The proposed no-gain, no-loss treatment for qualifying stablecoins would represent a genuine departure from IRS Notice 2014-21's property framework. Firms that currently classify stablecoins as indefinite-lived intangible assets under ASC 350 or mark them to fair value under ASU 2023-08 should begin assessing how a tax-law change of this nature would interact with their existing financial reporting positions. Tax and financial reporting do not always move in lockstep, and the disconnect between a "no gain/loss" tax rule and fair-value accounting under GAAP will need to be disclosed and managed carefully. Robust crypto accounting software that can track cost basis, fair value, and tax treatment separately will be essential for firms navigating this gap.
Broker reporting infrastructure investment
The 2028 broker reporting changes give firms and platforms two years to build or upgrade compliance infrastructure. That timeline sounds comfortable, but the 2021 Act's broker reporting rules are still generating regulatory guidance and legal challenges. Firms advising digital asset businesses should treat the 2028 date as a target for having systems tested and operational, not a date to begin planning.
The elective annual netting decision
When the annual netting election becomes available, firms will need a repeatable decision process for each eligible client. The election converts all netting-period gains and losses to short-term, so the optimal choice depends on the client's overall tax position, anticipated future activity, and current long-term gain exposure. Building that analytical framework before 2028 means clients can make an informed decision in the first year the election is available rather than defaulting to an outcome that may not suit them.
Legislative Uncertainty Remains Real
Committee approval by Ways and Means is a necessary step, but it is far from sufficient for enactment. The bill must pass the full House, clear the Senate, and be signed into law. The approaching mid-term elections add a layer of political complexity: legislative bandwidth tends to compress in election years, and members may be reluctant to take firm positions on contested tax policy. The CLARITY Act's Senate difficulties earlier this year illustrate how quickly crypto-related legislation can stall even after committee progress. Practitioners should plan for this bill as a serious possibility rather than a certainty, which means doing the analytical work now without making irreversible structural changes based on provisions that have not yet become law.
Immediate Action Points for Practitioners
For accounting firms advising clients
Pull a list of clients with active digital asset positions and flag any who have executed loss-harvesting trades in 2026. Document the cost basis, disposal dates, and repurchase dates for those trades before year-end. Draft a brief client alert explaining the wash sale risk and the stablecoin treatment timeline. Begin scoping what changes to crypto bookkeeping software and workflows would be required if the bill is enacted in its current form.
For corporate CFOs and treasury teams
If your treasury holds stablecoins for liquidity or payments, map your current tax treatment of those instruments and identify the gap between your present approach and the proposed 2027 regime. For firms holding other digital assets, assess whether your digital asset accounting software can generate wash sale analysis alongside the existing gain/loss reporting you are already producing. If it cannot, the time to upgrade or supplement that capability is now, not after enactment.
The broader US digital asset regulatory picture continues to evolve rapidly. Our earlier analysis of how the CLARITY Act's Senate vote affected stablecoin and DeFi accounting provides useful context for understanding where H.R. 10357 fits in the legislative sequence. The CFTC's concurrent rulemaking activity is also relevant: see our piece on how the CFTC sent crypto rules to the White House as the CLARITY Act stalled for the regulatory-agency dimension of the same policy moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act change how stablecoins are taxed right now?
No. The stablecoin provision is proposed to take effect in 2027 if the bill is enacted. Until then, stablecoins remain property under IRS Notice 2014-21, and disposals can generate taxable gain or loss. No structural changes to stablecoin accounting treatment are required today, but firms should begin modelling the transition impact now.
Which transactions could the wash sale rules affect retroactively?
The bill as described includes provisions that would take effect from the date of the bill's introduction, not just from enactment. That means digital asset loss sales completed in 2026, where the same or a substantially identical asset was repurchased within 30 days, could be caught by the wash sale disallowance if the bill passes. Practitioners should document all such trades now.
Is the $10 de minimis fee exemption automatic or does it require an election?
Based on the available bill description, the de minimis exemption for network and transaction fees of $10 or less appears to apply automatically rather than requiring a taxpayer election. However, the precise statutory language will determine whether any recordkeeping conditions apply. This provision is not expected to take effect until 2028.
How does the elective annual netting work if a taxpayer has a mix of short-term and long-term positions?
Under the proposed election, all gain or loss recognised through the annual netting mechanism would be treated as short-term, regardless of the actual holding period of the underlying assets. A taxpayer with long-term digital asset positions who elects annual netting would effectively surrender the preferential long-term capital gains rate on those positions. The election would need to be evaluated each year based on the taxpayer's specific mix of positions and their overall tax situation.
Does H.R. 10357 address the timing of income inclusion for staking rewards?
No. The Forvis Mazars analysis of the bill explicitly notes that while staking rewards would be treated as ordinary income sourced by the taxpayer's residence, the bill does not resolve the open question of when staking rewards must be included in income. That timing question remains unsettled under existing IRS guidance and ongoing litigation, and H.R. 10357 does not change that position.
Source: Forvis Mazars