Tax

120 days after a complete submission. Substantially lower penalties. Those are the targets IRS Criminal Investigation chief Jarod Koopman set for the revamped Voluntary Disclosure Practice on October 23, 2026. The overhaul is “very close,” he said, with release planned before December begins. The final terms are not published. For a US crypto holder ignoring a six-figure cost-basis problem, the potential change is concrete: a different price and timetable for admitting intentional tax noncompliance under a framework dating to 2018. Unreported gains, sales on foreign exchanges and mixer transactions still require records and explanations. Form 1099-DA reporting now gives the IRS custodial-broker data on US users; a missing basis history remains the holder’s problem to reconstruct. ...

U.S. investors in staking ETFs have a tax deadline to watch: April 6, 2027. On October 6, 2026, the IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2026-20, replacing its earlier staking safe harbor and starting a six-month transition period. A separate rule requires reward distributions within 60 days after the relevant calendar quarter ends. For Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE) and Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL), these rules concern preservation of grantor trust treatment. Losing that classification can introduce corporate taxation before investors receive distributions. Missing safe-harbor requirements, however, is not itself an IRS determination that a trust automatically becomes a corporation. ...

The operational danger in the United States’ 2026 crypto reporting rollout is a missing link between a sale and its acquisition history. A brokerage can know exactly how much cryptocurrency it sold for a customer while lacking the records needed to establish that customer’s taxable profit. For investors moving years-old holdings out of self-custody, preparing that history before liquidation is now a central tax-control task. The phrase zero-basis trap describes a reporting and substantiation failure, not a rule that confiscates the basis of deposited assets. Transferring holdings between wallets or accounts owned by the same taxpayer generally does not create income; digital assets spent on transfer services require separate consideration. The transfer itself does not establish a new purchase price. IRS digital-asset transaction FAQs, question 81. ...

Six Strategies, Two Deadlines, One Tax Distinction The IRS has put six fund strategies under scrutiny, and US crypto investors have two dates to track: October 28 and December 31. The September 28 action targets tax engineering. It does not impose a blanket new tax on crypto ETFs. Treasury and the IRS simultaneously issued Notice 2026-62 and Revenue Ruling 2026-20. The notice describes emerging investment-fund structures whose claimed benefits may conflict with federal tax law’s purpose. The ruling rejects one specific ETF conversion under existing law. ...

On September 15, the US Senate voted 49–50 to kill the CLARITY Act’s procedural motion. Market structure reform — the thing the entire industry has been lobbying for since 2023 — died on the floor. Twenty-four hours later, on September 16, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 38–5 to advance H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act. That is a bigger deal than the headline number suggests, and it is also a trade, not a gift. ...