House Crypto Tax Bill Drops $2.96B Staking Deferral

An estimated $2.956 billion over fiscal years 2026 through 2036 was the federal revenue cost attached to the mining and staking tax deferral that House Republicans just left out of their crypto tax package, according to crypto.news' account of the estimate for Rep. Mike Carey's H.R. 9175. The 114-page bill that goes to markup instead, H.R. 10357, keeps a $10 exemption for network fees and extends wash-sale rules to digital assets, which means the package now carries a revenue raiser without the offsetting cost the industry wanted.

What the committee released, and what it left out

The Block reported that the House Ways and Means Committee released the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act on Monday ahead of a Wednesday markup, introduced by committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., pulling together proposals the panel debated at a June hearing. GovInfo lists H.R. 10357 as introduced in the House on September 14, 2026, in the 119th Congress.

The omission is specific, and some coverage has described it too broadly. Cointelegraph reported that the package does not include the reward-timing provision from Carey's Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, so mining and staking rewards would remain taxable when received or brought under the recipient's control, potentially before they are sold for cash. That is not the same as the bill ignoring the subject. The Block reported that mining and staking have their own section in the bill, with income from such activity generally taxed as ordinary income and room for certain investment trusts to stake holdings without that activity alone affecting their tax status; an earlier mining and staking bill included a deferral option for certain newly minted assets, and that option is not in the new bill. Summaries saying the package "does not address" mining and staking are inaccurate: it addresses them, and rejects the deferral election.

The other main provisions are more concrete than the headline suggests. A taxpayer paying a qualifying network or transaction fee in crypto would not have to record a gain or loss if the fee is $10 or less, and the exemption would not apply to people who made more than 5,000 digital-asset transfers during the previous tax year. Simplified annual accounting would be available for widely traded digital assets, and both the fee provision and the accounting change would start in 2028. Crypto.news reported that the package incorporates earlier Republican proposals plus bipartisan legislation from Reps. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., and Max Miller, R-Ohio, covering small transactions, gain and loss calculations, transfers, wash sales, mining, staking and broker requirements.

The verified figures

Read those two scores together and the shape of the package changes. Both estimates cover the same fiscal 2026–2036 window, so they are comparable: my own arithmetic is that the version headed to markup retains a roughly $2.07 billion raiser while shedding a roughly $2.96 billion cost. That is a comparison of two separate provision estimates, not a score of the final package, and no official score of H.R. 10357 as introduced has been published in the coverage reviewed here.

What taxation at receipt actually costs a staker

The dispute is about timing, not whether the income is taxed. Under current IRS treatment, staking rewards are generally ordinary income once a taxpayer gains dominion and control over the assets, and the value at that point becomes the cost basis used to calculate a later gain or loss. Carey's provision would have let taxpayers choose between recognizing newly created tokens as income at receipt or treating them like self-created property and paying tax at sale. The practical consequence of keeping receipt-based timing is a cash-flow mismatch: tax is owed on a token's value on the day it arrives, even if the holder does not sell, and if the price later falls the loss shows up as a capital item rather than reducing the ordinary income already recognized. That follows from the basis mechanics above; it is not a claim that anyone's tax bill will rise, because the bill does not change the current rule.

The lobbying split is documented on both sides. The Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation and The Digital Chamber wrote to Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Richard Neal on June 22 urging the committee to pass H.R. 9175 as introduced, and the letter warned against proposals imposing an arbitrary deferral cap that would force miners and stakers to liquidate on a set timeline regardless of market conditions. Banking groups argued the opposite during the debate: that deferring tax on mining and staking income would treat crypto rewards differently from interest, dividends and other forms of income. Horsford filed an amendment to limit the deferral to five years; Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Hun Kim wrote on X that the amendment would "break" the bill and raise "negligible revenue." A filed amendment is a proposal, not an adopted change.

What remains unknown is why the provision came out and whether it comes back. Punchbowl News reported on Sept. 13 that committee Republicans were strongly considering dropping the mining and staking provisions, describing the issue as the biggest tension point with Horsford, the most vocal crypto backer among Ways and Means Democrats and a crucial swing vote — reporting on deliberations, attributed to that outlet, not a stated committee rationale. No amendment restoring the deferral has been verified as filed for Wednesday's meeting.

Dated catalysts

• Sept. 16, 10 a.m. ET: Committee documents show H.R. 10357 scheduled for markup, alongside several unrelated tax and health measures, listed by the committee with H.R. 10334, H.R. 6130, H.R. 5439, H.R. 4093, H.R. 10346 and H.R. 10356. A markup produces a committee vote on whether to report the bill; it is not House passage.
• Same day: the House Financial Services Committee is set to mark up the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026, one of nine bills on its agenda, and the markup lands one day after the Senate's CLARITY Act cloture vote. Cloture on a market-structure bill is a separate procedural step on separate legislation.
• 2028: the fee exemption and accounting change would take effect only if the bill is enacted in this form.

On timing beyond committee, Bitcoin.com News reported that the bill is unlikely to become law in 2026, citing little House floor time before November. No floor date has been announced in any source reviewed, and nothing in the package changes a taxpayer's obligations until both chambers pass it and it is signed.