US bill would let crypto investors fix past tax mistakes with smaller penalties

A path to fix earlier crypto tax errors

A bill moving through the US Congress would give crypto investors a way to correct tax mistakes from earlier years. The proposal, called the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act (H.R. 10357), would create a dedicated program for people who reported their crypto trades incorrectly or not at all.

Under the plan, eligible taxpayers could file corrected tax returns, pay the tax they owe plus interest, and pay a set penalty in return for more predictable treatment. The bill has cleared one committee vote, but it has not become law.

Key numbers in the proposal

• The Treasury secretary would have 12 months after the bill becomes law to set up a Digital Asset Voluntary Disclosure Program.
• Taxpayers would generally have 24 months from the program's start to file corrected returns.
• Whoever certifies their mistakes were not willful would pay a 0% penalty on the first $25,000 of tax owed per year, and 5% on anything above that, if they file in the program's first 12 months.
• Those who do not certify would face 25% on the first $25,000 and 40% above it, with higher rates if they miss that window.

What the bill text and committee record show

Section 502 of the bill requires the Treasury secretary to set up the disclosure program within 12 months of the legislation taking effect. The House Ways and Means Committee approved the bill by a 38-5 vote on September 16.

That is where the confirmed progress ends. The bill still needs to pass the full House and Senate and be signed by the president before any program exists.

Why current options leave some investors stuck

The proposal arrives as US crypto users face their first filing season under new broker reporting rules known as Form 1099-DA, which give the tax authorities wider visibility into crypto transactions.

Andrew Gordon, executive director of Digital Asset Tax Action, said those rules should make reporting easier going forward but do nothing for the years before they took effect. He said a large share of investors reported incorrectly over the years, and that current procedures do not give people who made honest mistakes a predictable way to settle what they owe. He described the bill as a big change that would help many ordinary taxpayers and has drawn little attention.

Sharon Yip, a certified public accountant and founder of Crypto Tax Advisors, said mistakes among everyday investors are common. In her firm's experience, some clients did not report crypto because they believed no tax was due until they converted back to cash, while others worked from incomplete exchange records or sorted transactions the wrong way. She said there is no standardized process that gives non-willful investors predictable penalties, and that a crypto-specific program could fill that gap with a defined correction window and clearer outcomes.

How the two penalty tracks differ

The bill sets out two routes. Taxpayers who certify under penalty of perjury that their violations were neither fraudulent nor willful receive the lower rates. The higher rates apply to those who do not certify, and those taxpayers would also be protected from criminal referrals based on information they properly disclose through the program. The proposal also provides relief from certain civil penalties.

Yip advised taxpayers to review their transaction histories across exchanges and wallets to work out which years need correcting, and to confirm whether their mistakes were genuinely non-willful. Because a false certification carries a penalty of perjury, she recommended getting professional guidance when in doubt.

Why it matters for everyday crypto holders

Surveys suggest confusion is widespread. A 2026 report by CoinTracker and Coinbase found that only 49% of crypto users correctly understood that selling crypto can be a taxable event. Tax experts quoted in the article say confusion about how crypto-to-crypto trades are taxed and how activity spread across multiple platforms should be reported sends many investors into the wrong years without realizing it.

What remains unclear

The program does not exist yet. The bill has only cleared a committee vote, so its final terms could change as it moves through the House and Senate. Details such as which taxpayers qualify as eligible, and how the program would be administered in practice, are not settled in the material available.

Sources

• Cointelegraph