By
Bena Ilyas
April 19th, 2024
Coin Center filed the complaints against the digital assets reporting mandate, as expanded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Coin Center among other interested parties has filed a case against several United States departments. The case was filed on June 10, 2022, with the United States District Court Eastern District of Kentucky Lexington Division. Coin Center filed the complaints against the digital assets reporting mandate, as expanded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“In 2021, President Biden and Congress amended a little-known tax reporting mandate. If the amendment is allowed to go into effect, it will impose a mass surveillance regime on ordinary Americans. The amendment makes an ill-fitting reporting requirement apply to millions of citizens who participate in a wide range of transactions using “digital assets,” a category defined to include any digital representation of value recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger,” the lawsuit reads.
Coin Center Fights for Digital Assets Future
The crypto market has gained popularity for its decentralization, scalability, and security aspects lacking in traditional financial services. However, governments around the world have stepped in to regulate the crypto market, led by the United States.
Back in 2021, the Biden administration relooked into one of its laws, U.S.C. §6050I, on cash to include digital assets. The law was enacted in 1984 and requires participants in certain transactions to report information about themselves. Additionally, participants are expected to share their transactions with the federal government. Essentially, the law requires US citizens to report any transactions exceeding $10,000 in cash.
Should the Biden proposal get implemented, then crypto users will be expected to share critical information with the government. Among the personal information involved include Social Security numbers and home addresses of the parties involved.
However, Coin Center, Quiet Industries Corp., Dan Carman, and Raymond Walsh are committed to seeing the bill injuncted.
The plaintiffs argue that people are entitled to secure transactions without total surveillance from the government.
“Plaintiffs are entitled to a declaration that the amended §6050I’s reporting mandate is facially unconstitutional and an injunction against its enforcement,” the Court filings read.
Worth noting, that the amendment is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024. After which it will directly implicate digital asset receipts that occurred up to a year earlier. Additionally, it will indirectly implicate transactions that are occurring now.
“The mandate would force the disclosure of sensitive information in violation of their reasonable expectations of privacy and their property rights. It also would threaten to expose their protected associations and thereby chill their expressive activities,” the filings added.