The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the wing of the U.S. Treasury Department tasked with monitoring potential legal violations of national financial laws, wants Americans to report if they have holdings of more than $ 10.000 in cryptocurrencies with financial service providers or foreign virtual assets.
A new FinCEN action could change the face of crypto regulations in the US
FinCEN announced its intention to amend the Foreign Bank and Financial Account Report (FBAR) regulations in the Bank Secrecy Act during a notice published on New Year's Eve, just three weeks before the Treasury Department's leadership changes.
In the text of the notice, it is stated that FinCEN intends to propose an amendment to the regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding the reports on foreign financial accounts (FBAR).
In particular, the agency intends to include cryptocurrencies in reports and communications regarding bank statements. Currently, FinCEN has not provided a timeline on when this new proposal could be published or implemented.
The change in regulations would appear to align the rules on FBAR crypto holdings with those regarding money held outside the United States by US citizens or other persons.
This could have the most noticeable impact on users of crypto exchanges like Bitstamp and Bitfinex, but not platforms like Bitcoin system. At present, FBARs must be submitted by people who have a total of over $ 10.000 in foreign financial accounts, including currencies. However, current regulations do not designate cryptocurrencies as assets subject to FBAR disclosure. This amendment would end this exemption.
Another crackdown on crypto holding declarations
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website, FBAR reports must include the name on the account, the account number, the name and address of the foreign bank, the type of account and the maximum value held during the year.
People who fail to submit such a report face various penalties, including monetary fines, according to the website. What is unclear is what additional information holders of crypto products may need to store, such as blockchain addresses.
Thursday's notice comes just days before the public comment phase ends for another FinCEN initiative - which would require exchanges to store customer information when transferring more than $ 3.000 in cryptocurrencies to non-hosted wallets. plus additional files with transaction reports aggregating more than $ 10.000 in cryptocurrency per day.
The latter measure, released just a week before Christmas, has drawn the ire of the crypto community both for its potential impact on various crypto projects and for the shorter-than-usual comment period that also ties into the U.S. federal holidays. .
If both of these proposed rules are implemented, US people may need to report crypto holdings and transactions over $ 10.000 regardless of where they are held.
