On November 15, President Biden signed the more than USD 1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. Despite substantial criticism and various attempts to amend the bill while it was under debate in Congress, the Infrastructure Act includes two changes to provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that deal with reporting obligations for certain digital assets transactions. Although one of these changes received much more attention than the other.
On 10 August 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the USD 1 trillion infrastructure bill, known formally as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Bill). The Infrastructure Bill includes provisions for approximately USD 550 billion in new federal spending over 10 years on various transportation, broadband, utilities, and other infrastructure projects. The Infrastructure Bill contemplates that USD 28 billion in income tax attributable to the disposition of digital assets will be collected over 10 years.
Bitcoin broke into the consciousness of the general public in 2017. In March of that year, the price surpassed its then-all-time-high of USD 1,342. By December 17, 2017, the price was USD 19,783, up 1,824% from January 1, 2017. About a year later, on December 7, 2018, the price had dropped to below USD 3,300, a 76% drop from the prior December.