Treasury set to ease Biden-era CAMT rule that could have forced firms like Michael Saylor’s Strategy to pay billions on unrealized Bitcoin gains, as crypto taxation heads to a Senate hearing.

The U.S. Treasury Department and IRS are moving to ease how the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) applies to corporate crypto holdings, reversing a Biden-era interpretation that could have exposed large bitcoin-holding companies to multibillion‑dollar tax liabilities on unrealized gains. CAMT, enacted in 2022, imposes a 15% minimum tax on corporations with over $1 billion in annual income based on their financial statement income rather than traditional taxable income. Because current FASB accounting rules require crypto to be marked to market on corporate balance sheets, earlier CAMT proposals effectively meant that paper profits on bitcoin and other digital assets could be swept into the CAMT base, even while unrealized gains on equities remained excluded. According to reporting, Treasury is preparing to formally relax that treatment by clarifying that unrealized digital asset gains will not be subject to CAMT, removing a “phantom income” tax risk for firms such as Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which holds tens of billions of dollars in bitcoin. This shift aligns crypto more closely with traditional assets under the minimum tax regime and follows sustained industry and congressional pressure over the perceived unfairness and complexity of taxing volatile, unrealized crypto gains. The policy move coincides with renewed congressional focus on digital‑asset taxation, including a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the taxation of digital assets that is examining broader issues such as how to treat staking, custody, and other crypto activities under federal tax law.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• US Treasury Eases Crypto Tax Rules — Bitcoin Stands To Gain (bitcoinmagazine.com)
• Treasury Issues Interim CAMT Guidance to Reduce Burdens ... (home.treasury.gov)
• IRS Provides Interim Guidance with Respect to Portions of Proposed ... (vedder.com)

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