BPI targets August for BTC tax relief, but warns time is running out

The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), an industry advocacy group, is eyeing a target window between March and August 2026 to pass a de minimis tax exemption for Bitcoin through Congress, warning that time to pass meaningful legislation is running out.

BPI said it has engaged with 19 Congressional offices in both the House and Senate over the last three months to pitch US lawmakers on a tax exemption for Bitcoin (BTC) transactions below a certain threshold.

Expanding the de minimis tax exemptions beyond dollar-pegged stablecoins has bipartisan support, but the BPI warned that the “window is narrowing” for Bitcoin tax legislation. The BPI said:

“Congress will be increasingly consumed by midterm dynamics as summer approaches, and the bandwidth for complex tax legislation shrinks with every passing week. Senator Lummis, the issue's most forceful champion, departs the Senate in January 2027.

If a package does not come together in the next few months, the opportunity may not return for years,” the BPI continued. 

The timeline and target window for Bitcoin de minimis tax legislation. Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute

Under current US tax rules, using BTC to pay for goods and services triggers a taxable event and tax reporting to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), preventing the use of Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

A de minimis exemption would allow small crypto transactions, typically below a set dollar threshold, to be excluded from capital gains reporting, allowing users to spend Bitcoin without calculating gains or losses on minor purchases.

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Tax policy has kept Bitcoin as an investment and out of commerce

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced a bill in July 2025 proposing a de minimis tax exemption for cryptocurrency transactions of $300 or less, capped at $5,000 annually.

However, the bill failed to gain traction in the Senate, and a competing bill focused entirely on tax exemptions for stablecoins was introduced to the House of Representatives by Congresspersons Max Miller and Steven Horsford in 2025.

A comparison of the Lummis standalone crypto tax bill and the stablecoin de minimis tax bill introduced by Congressmen Max Miller and Steven Horsford. Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute

Bitcoin payments are held back by the digital asset’s current treatment under the US tax code, according to Pierre Rochard, a board member for BTC treasury company Strive. 

“The number one impediment to Bitcoin payments adoption is tax policy, not scaling technology,” Rochard said on X.

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