US lawmakers have resubmitted the PARITY Act with a major change to crypto tax treatment: the latest draft drops the earlier $200 de minimis exemption cap for regulated payment stablecoin transactions and replaces it with condition-based standards. The bill was originally drafted in December 2025 and sent back for congressional review on March 26.
Under the revised text, a sale of a regulated payment stablecoin would be treated as non-taxable if the seller’s cost basis is less than 99% of the coin’s total redemption value. That language replaces the fixed dollar threshold used in the earlier version. The draft also says exchanges handling stablecoin transactions should apply a default fixed cost basis of $1.
Exemption narrowed to regulated payment stablecoins
The bill keeps the idea of tax relief for small-value crypto use, but the scope is now tightly limited to stablecoin transactions. Bitcoin and similar digital assets are not included. Based on the draft, the exemption is being framed inside a more closely supervised area of the market rather than extended across crypto as a whole.
The crypto industry has pushed for de minimis treatment for years, arguing that small payments should not trigger the same reporting burden as larger disposals. One common example is using crypto for everyday purchases such as a cup of coffee. The new draft no longer uses a simple dollar cap, but it still tries to address the reporting burden attached to low-value transactions.
Wash sale rule added for digital assets
Another notable section introduces a wash sale rule for digital assets. The measure, previously proposed by Senator Cynthia Lummis, is intended to stop investors from selling and quickly rebuying crypto solely to lock in losses for tax purposes.
The draft also draws a clearer line between passive staking and regular trading. It describes passive staking as activity where investors help validate network transactions without trading, with the aim of making the tax treatment of staking income more explicit.
Next steps remain uncertain in Congress
Even with those revisions, the bill’s path through Congress is still unclear. The source notes that expectations around broader tax reform, along with recent budget requests announced by former President Donald Trump, have left the measure’s future unsettled.
Recent meetings between lawmakers and industry participants show that crypto tax policy remains under active discussion. For now, the clearest point in the new draft is that the relief mechanism is focused on stablecoins, while Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain outside that exemption.