PARITY Act 2.0: Congress Drops Another Shot at Making Crypto Taxes Less Painful

Congressmen Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and Max Miller (R-Ohio) have dusted off their Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulation, Innovation, Taxation and Yields (PARITY) Act — because nothing says "we understand crypto" like an acronym that could double as a motivational poster. This round comes with some tweaks to how the U.S. approaches digital assets and taxes, presumably after someone in a congressional office learned what a gas fee is.

The bill first crept into the world as a discussion draft last December, then got a glow-up on March 26 for another round of review. With Congress expected to tackle bigger tax legislation in the coming months, U.S. crypto holders should probably start paying attention — because whatever passes could determine whether you owe the IRS money for buying a meme coin at 3 a.m. or simply existing in this economy.

The most noticeable change in the latest version deals with "de minimis" gains. These exemptions generally let people skip reporting on small transactions without worrying about tax consequences — a concept so simple that Congress somehow made it complicated. The industry has been begging for this kind of relief for a while, specifically so regular folks can do things like buy coffee without triggering a capital gain or loss report on the crypto used. Imagine explaining to your accountant that you lost money on a latte.

The December 2025 draft started with a section addressing de minimis exemptions for payments made via "regulated payment stablecoins," setting a $200 threshold. That part didn't seem to cover digital assets like bitcoin, noting instead it focused on stablecoins specifically because of the GENIUS Act — because apparently, when you're writing crypto legislation, everything needs to be part of a universe with too many acronyms.

The March 2026 version doesn't explicitly call out a de minimis exemption, but it does address the concern differently: "In the case of any sale of a regulated payment stablecoin, no gain or loss shall be recognized on such sale unless the taxpayer's basis in such stablecoin is less than 99 percent of the redemption value of such stablecoin." The $200 threshold is gone, replaced with a deemed basis of $1 for exchanges — separate from stablecoin sales. Translation: Congress tried to fix the coffee problem but decided to speak fluent legalese instead.

The newest draft also throws wash sale rules into the mix for digital asset transactions. That's not exactly controversial territory — Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) included similar wash sale provisions in her tax bill last year. Wash sales: the IRS's way of saying "you thought you were being clever, but you're not."

Additionally, the bill draws a line between "passive staking" and activities like trading. Finally, some clarity on whether your validator node is a hobby or a job. We're guessing the IRS will let you know either way.

As for what's next? Unclear. There's chatter about a reconciliation tax bill, and U.S. President Donald Trump revealed his fiscal year 2027 budget requests, but there's no guarantee the reconciliation bill materializes or that crypto ends up in it. That said, conversations with industry folks suggest there'll be a solid push to get crypto into whatever tax legislation actually becomes law. Lobbyists are already warming up their GroupMe chats.