News
What the election means for pending digital asset tax bills
Control of Congress is projected to change when the new Congress begins on January 3, 2027. Any digital asset tax bill not enacted by then, including H.R. 10357 and H.R. 9500, would have to start over.
After the November 3, 2026 elections, CBS News projects that Democrats will control both the House and the Senate in the next Congress, and CNBC’s election desk projects a Democratic majority in the House. Some races have not been called yet. The new Congress, the 120th, begins on January 3, 2027.
That date is what matters for digital asset tax legislation. Under the Twentieth Amendment, the terms of the current members of Congress end at noon on January 3, 2027, and the 119th Congress ends with them. Bills that have not become law by then expire. To move in the next Congress, a bill has to be introduced again and start from the beginning: referral to committee, committee action, and votes in both chambers.
Until then, the current Congress and its committee leadership stay in place. Members return after the election for what is usually called a lame-duck session. The current stopgap funding law runs through December 11, 2026, so Congress has a government-funding deadline in the same window. In the new Congress, the majority party in each chamber will choose the chairs of the tax-writing committees, Ways and Means in the House and Finance in the Senate. Those committees are where any reintroduced tax bill would start.
Where the pending bills stand
As of November 4, 2026, Congress.gov lists these latest actions:
| Bill | What it would do | Latest action |
|---|---|---|
| H.R. 10357, Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act (Rep. Jason Smith, R-MO-8) | Broad rewrite of digital asset tax rules; Section 502 would create a voluntary disclosure program | Ordered reported by Ways and Means, 38–5, on September 16, 2026. No House floor vote yet. |
| H.R. 9500, Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act (Rep. Max Miller, R-OH-7) | Restores the theft-loss deduction for victims of fraud | Passed the House 408–17 on September 15, 2026; referred to Senate Finance on September 16 |
| H.R. 9174, Digital Assets Voluntary Disclosure Program Act (Rep. Aaron Bean, R-FL-4) | A standalone voluntary disclosure program | Referred to Ways and Means on June 8, 2026 |
| S. 5616, ADAPT Act (Sen. Steve Daines, R-MT) | Senate digital asset tax bill, described below | Introduced and referred to Senate Finance on September 30, 2026 |
None of these bills has become law.
The Senate bill: S. 5616, the ADAPT Act
On September 30, 2026, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced S. 5616, the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation (ADAPT) Act, with Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and Tim Scott (R-SC) as cosponsors. It was referred to the Finance Committee the same day. We have not covered it before. Based on the introduced text, it would:
- Stablecoin purchases. Recognize no gain or loss when a “covered payment stablecoin” is used to buy goods or services. That is a U.S. dollar stablecoin that Treasury lists as trading within 3 percent of $1.00 and that the taxpayer bought within 3 percent of $1.00 (sec. 2).
- Small network fees. Recognize no gain or loss on digital assets used to pay transaction or network fees totaling $10 or less for a transaction (sec. 11).
- Wash sales. Extend the wash sale rule, which today covers stock and securities, to traded digital assets other than qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins (sec. 7).
- Mark-to-market. Let dealers and traders in digital assets elect mark-to-market accounting (sec. 3).
- Charitable gifts. Remove the qualified-appraisal requirement for donations of “widely traded digital assets,” starting with taxable years that begin after December 31, 2026 (sec. 10). Under current law that requirement applies when a donor deducts more than $5,000 for a crypto gift. Our crypto giving page explains it.
- Staking by tax-exempt organizations. Exclude income from delegated staking that the organization does not substantially participate in from unrelated business taxable income, also starting with taxable years that begin after December 31, 2026 (sec. 12).
The other sections cover where validation (mining and staking) income is sourced, trading by foreign persons, transfers of digital assets under lending-type agreements, constructive sales, trusts and publicly traded partnerships that hold digital assets, registration-required obligations, and certain foreign entities tied to decentralized autonomous organizations.
Two things the introduced text does not contain: a voluntary disclosure program like Section 502 of H.R. 10357, and the fraud-victim theft-loss changes in H.R. 9500.
What this means for you
Nothing about your 2026 return changed on November 3. Until a bill is enacted, current law applies. That includes Form 1099-DA: brokers report gross proceeds for transactions beginning in 2025 and add cost basis for covered digital assets beginning in 2026. Our guide to how digital assets are taxed and our Form 1099-DA guide describe the rules as they stand. If one of these bills becomes law, we will report what it changes.
Our affiliate, Digital Asset Tax Advocacy, has taken positions on H.R. 10357 and H.R. 9500 and tracks them on its section of this website. This page, like everything we publish, is educational only and takes no position on the legislation or the election.
Last updated
This page is educational and does not constitute tax or legal advice for your specific situation. For questions about your own filings, consult a qualified tax professional.