White House reviews rule on IRS access to offshore crypto data

Will the White House proposal give the IRS broader access to offshore crypto data as agencies push for tighter tax oversight?
Summary

• The White House is reviewing a proposal that would allow the IRS to access U.S. taxpayers’ crypto activity on foreign platforms.
• The move follows an earlier administration report recommending alignment with global reporting standards to improve tax compliance.
• The White House stressed that any new rules should avoid additional reporting burdens for decentralized finance transactions.

The White House is examining a proposed rule that would give the Internal Revenue Service access to data on U.S. taxpayers’ digital asset activity conducted through foreign platforms.

The proposal reached the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Friday. The office, under the broader Office of Management and Budget, evaluates federal rules to ensure they are consistent with presidential policy goals.

The move follows a detailed digital asset report published earlier in the year, where the administration addressed gaps in crypto oversight and tax compliance.

One of the report’s recommendations urged the IRS and Treasury to consider rules that align with the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, an international standard designed to improve tax transparency.

Under this framework, digital asset service providers would be required to share transaction information with regulators to help authorities identify offshore activity.

The White House argued in its report that adopting the framework would reduce incentives for U.S. taxpayers to move assets to offshore exchanges and could support healthier domestic market activity. It also said such alignment would help prevent the U.S. from falling behind jurisdictions that already apply similar reporting standards.

The report noted, however, that expanded rules should avoid imposing additional reporting demands on decentralized finance transactions, signalling that DeFi activity should remain outside the scope of the proposal.