According to a Bloomberg report, the president plans to remove the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner, Billy Long, and nominate him for an ambassador position. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold the position until the White House appoints a replacement.
The IRS, as the tax regulator, oversees taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. It is noteworthy that Donald Trump revoked the IRS's DeFi cryptocurrency reporting rule earlier this year. Meanwhile, as reported by CoinGape, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, under Bessent's direction, officially repealed this rule last month.
Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that Coinbase and its customers had a case against the IRS after the regulator issued a subpoena against the cryptocurrency exchange to access user data as part of a tax investigation.
It remains to be seen whether Bessent will be able to address any cryptocurrency-related issues while serving as acting director of the IRS. However, the Treasury Secretary has always reaffirmed the Trump administration's commitment to making the U.S. the capital of cryptocurrencies.
Curiously, the nomination of Bessent as Acting Commissioner by Donald Trump comes after the nomination of Stephen Miran, a cryptocurrency advocate, to the Federal Reserve Board. Miran will replace Adriana Kugler on the board and will serve until the end of January next year.
The Digital Assets Working Group, of which Bessent is also a part, recommended in the White House cryptocurrency policy report that Congress pass legislation that considers crypto assets as a new asset class. They proposed that cryptocurrencies be subject to modified versions of tax rules applicable to securities or commodities.
The Committee urged the Treasury and the IRS to provide guidance on digital assets in relation to the corporate alternative minimum tax. Therefore, Bessent could lay the groundwork for tax guidance for the cryptocurrency industry from his interim position as IRS Commissioner.
As for Congressional legislation, pro-cryptocurrency Senator Cynthia Lummis has already introduced a bill on cryptocurrency taxes to eliminate double taxation on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions. The bill also includes a de minimis exception for individual transactions under $300.
