One of the crypto industry’s longtime Republican allies in Congress has introduced a bill allowing individuals and businesses to pay their taxes in bitcoin. without triggering capital gains liability and also directing funds to the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve – providing a new funding mechanism for the federal crypto stockpile that has not yet been established.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) introduced the Bitcoin for America Act to allow Americans to pay their federal taxes in bitcoin, he said Thursday on his official website.
Davidson, a Bitcoin advocate since 2012, said the bill aims to strengthen the country’s economy and position it at the forefront of global digital asset leadership.
“The Bitcoin for America Act marks an important step toward modernizing our financial systems and embracing the innovation that millions of Americans already use every day,” he said in a statement.
“By allowing taxpayers to pay federal taxes in Bitcoin and placing the proceeds in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the nation will benefit from a tangible asset whose value appreciates over time – unlike the U.S. dollar, which has steadily lost value under inflationary pressures,” he said.
He said in an interview with the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a research organization advocating for BTC, that he regrets that Congress did not listen to him in 2016, when BTC was between $500 and $600.
“Think about the benefits in terms of what this could do for a country with $38 trillion in debt,” the congressman said.
“The Bitcoin for America Act proves that a strategic Bitcoin reserve does not need to be a top-down mandate,” said Conner Brown, chief strategy officer at BPI. “By allowing Americans to voluntarily contribute to Bitcoin through their taxes, this creates the first truly democratic, market-driven model for domestic Bitcoin accumulation.”
President Donald Trump’s strategic Bitcoin reserve became a possibility in early March, when he signed an executive order authorizing its creation.
However, those working on the project at the White House and Treasury Department have not taken the final step to build the reserve, which they say will likely require Congressional intervention.
When the president requested the reserve, he disappointed many of its advocates in the crypto industry when he said it would not use taxpayer dollars to fund it. Davidson’s bill could potentially run counter to this concept, even though it provides that taxpayers will knowingly place their assets in the fund (and receive the capital gains exemption on that amount).
The Arkham US Federal Reserve tracker is currently down, but according to the most recent estimates, the White House crypto vault contains approximately 198,012 BTC, valued at approximately $17 billion.
Davidson’s bill, which assumes that bitcoin “is expected to appreciate due to its scarcity and growing adoption,” finds itself in the midst of a major decline in the token’s value.
A House bill introduced now during the congressional session could serve as more of a talking point in future negotiations over various crypto tax provisions that industry lobbyists hope will find a legislative vehicle. Meanwhile, the lion’s share of lobbyists’ attention is on the Senate’s ongoing work on the crypto market structure bill.
