Crypto-Currency Reporting

[Snaggletooth]

One of the comments in my CPE information states that the IRS is relaxing its requirements on Issuers of 1099-B (e.g. Robinhood) for crypto-currency.

Hmmmmm - interesting. I wonder if it suddenly has to do with incredible losses in the cryto-currency industry in 2022-2023. IRS was sure interested before that happened.

[Rapid Robert]

"Hmmmmm - interesting. I wonder if it suddenly has to do with incredible losses in the cryto-currency industry in 2022-2023. IRS was sure interested before that happened."

IRS routinely "relaxes" legal requirements, such as the 3-year delay after the law was passed to require accuate 1098-T Box 1 amounts. Or the new delay (after previous ones) in 1099-K reporting, despite the legal requirement. There are other examples I don't have time to look up now.

What I find both odd and interesting is that lately, it seems every move by the IRS is speculated to be for a secret agenda. For example, there were a number of whacky theories proposed as to why the IRS suddenly extended the California disaster postponement by an additional month, including the theory that some ultra-wealthy taxpayer needed some additional time to lock in a mega capital loss for tax purposes, before filing.

To Snaggletooth, why do you wonder if this relaxation (whatever it is, you didn't explain) is motivated by movements in the trading market for crypto? Isn't there a simpler explanation (Occam's razor and all that)? Or to put it another way, never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompentence (and here I don't necessarily mean on the part of the IRS).