PARITY Act Returns: Congress Still Trying to Figure Out If Buying Coffee With Crypto Should Be Taxed

Congressmen Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and Max Miller (R-Ohio) have re-introduced their Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulation, Innovation, Taxation and Yields (PARITY) Act, seeking to update how the U.S. addresses crypto and taxes. Because nothing says "we understand technology" like an acronym that sounds like it was generated by a committee trying too hard.

The bill was first released in discussion draft form last December and re-released on March 26 for further review. Congress is expected to address taxes in the coming months, and crypto may end up part of this — which is pretty important for anyone in the U.S. who owns digital assets. Spoiler: most of us definitely aren't paying taxes on our coffee purchases, and the IRS probably knows.

The most immediately visible change appears to be the section addressing "de minimis" gains. These exemptions generally allow certain small transactions to be exempted from tax reporting. The industry has long sought a de minimis exemption for limited transactions, which could make it easier for individuals to do things like buy coffee without having to report a capital gain or loss. You know, that thing every crypto holder dreams about at 3am: explaining to their accountant why their daily latte cost them $4.02 in realized gains.

The December 2025 version of the PARITY Act began with a section addressing de minimis exemptions for payments made via "regulated payment stablecoins," with a note saying the threshold would be $200. While the section did not appear to extend these exemptions to digital assets like bitcoin, the note pointed to stablecoins specifically because of the GENIUS Act. Bitcoin holders got left out in the cold, but at least stablecoin degens finally caught a break. Progress, right?

The March 2026 version did not explicitly say there should be a de minimis exemption, but portions seemed to address that concern: "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." It removed the $200 threshold and created a deemed basis of $1 for exchanges, which are separate from sales of the stablecoin. Translation: they essentially invented a new kind of accounting magic where you're always buying at a dollar, so technically you're never winning. Brutal.

The latest draft would also apply wash sale rules to digital asset transactions — not a particularly controversial position, since Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) even included wash sale provisions in her tax bill last year. Even Congress can agree that dodging taxes by buying the dip immediately after selling is, apparently, still cheating. Shocker.

The bill would also draw a distinction between "passive staking" and activities like trading. Because nothing says "we get it" like lawmakers trying to figure out the difference between earning yield while you sleep versus frantically refreshing charts at 2am. Both involve losing money, but one apparently deserves a tax break.

It's unclear what the next steps might be. While there is talk about a reconciliation tax bill and U.S. President Donald Trump revealed his fiscal year 2027 budget requests, it's far from certain that the reconciliation bill will happen or that crypto will be part of it. Nevertheless, conversations with industry participants over the past few weeks suggest there will be a strong push to include crypto in any tax legislation that's likely to become law. In other words: expect more meetings, more drafts, and probably at least three more "we're finally doing it" headlines before anything actually passes.