House Bill Would Create Crypto Tax Amnesty With Tiered Penalties

A US House bill advancing through committee would require the Treasury secretary to establish a Digital Asset Voluntary Disclosure Program within 12 months of enactment, giving crypto investors a structured path to correct years of misreported tax filings. The House Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, by a 38-5 vote on Sept. 16, though the bill still needs passage in both chambers and a presidential signature.

The proposal speaks to a large population of non-compliant filers. A 2026 report by CoinTracker and Coinbase found that only 49% of crypto users correctly understood that selling crypto can be a taxable event.

"It's a big change that would help a lot of ordinary taxpayers, and it has gotten very little attention," Andrew Gordon, executive director of Digital Asset Tax Action, told the outlet.

What does the bill actually change?

Section 502 builds a crypto-specific correction mechanism where none currently exists. Under the provision, taxpayers file amended returns, pay the tax owed plus interest, and accept a program penalty. Taxpayers generally must file within 24 months of the program's establishment.

The bill sets two penalty tracks. Taxpayers who certify under penalty of perjury that their violations were neither fraudulent nor willful face a 0% penalty on the first $25,000 of tax deficiency per year and 5% on amounts above it, provided they file within the first 12 months. Taxpayers who do not certify face 25% on the first $25,000 and 40% above it, with rates rising for those who miss the initial window.

The measure also offers relief from specified civil penalties. Taxpayers who decline to certify still receive protection from criminal referrals based on information properly disclosed for the tax offenses the provision covers.

That structure matters because current options fit poorly. The IRS's existing Voluntary Disclosure Practice targets taxpayers who willfully violated tax rules and face potential criminal exposure. Ordinary filers can submit amended returns today, but the penalty treatment lacks predictability.

"Today, a crypto investor who learns they didn't properly report their crypto or has not reported at all has no good way to fix it," Gordon said. Investors can discover years later that they misunderstood the tax treatment of crypto-to-crypto trades or mishandled reporting across multiple platforms.

Why now

The timing follows the first filing season under the new 1099-DA broker reporting rules, which give the IRS greater visibility into crypto transactions. Gordon says those rules should make reporting easier going forward, but they do not address prior years. "A large share of investors didn't report correctly over the years," he said.

Sharon Yip, a CPA and founder of Crypto Tax Advisors, says reporting errors among ordinary investors are common in her practice. Some clients believed no tax was due until they cashed out; others relied on incomplete exchange records or misclassified transactions.

"There is no standardized process that gives non-willful crypto investors predictable penalty treatment or a clear resolution," Yip said. A crypto-specific program could, in her words, "fill this gap" by providing a "defined correction period, reduced and predictable penalties and greater certainty for taxpayers who come forward voluntarily."

Yip advises taxpayers to review transaction histories across exchanges and wallets to identify which years need correcting, then assess whether their mistakes were genuinely non-willful. Because certification carries a perjury penalty, she recommends professional guidance where taxpayers are unsure.

For practitioners, the practical question is preparation. A client with, say, $50,000 of tax deficiency in a given year could face a $1,250 penalty under the certified track, versus $12,500 without certification — a tenfold difference that makes records reconstruction and willfulness assessment billable work now, before the program opens.

What does this change for US crypto investors? Potentially everything for prior-year compliance: a defined two-year window, capped rates and criminal-referral protection replace an ad hoc process. But the change remains contingent — H.R. 10357 must still clear the House and Senate and survive a presidential signature before any disclosure deadline starts running.