Coin Center Attempting to Sue US Treasury, IRS Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Infrastructure Act

cryptonews.com:

The Washington-based crypto industry pressure group Coin Center says it has filed a lawsuit against the United States Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service – claiming that the crypto tax reporting requirements included in President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last year are “unconstitutional.”

In a filing submitted to a branch of the Kentucky District Court, as well as an accompanying post on its website, Coin Center explained:

“If the government wants us to report directly about ourselves and the people with whom we transact, it should prove before a judge that it has reasonable suspicion warranting a search of our private papers.”

Coin Center’s lawyers called the mandate a “mass surveillance regime on ordinary Americans.”

The terms of the law state that as of 2024, American taxpayers who receive more than USD 10,000 worth of cryptoassets must report sender data (including home addresses and social security numbers) to the authorities.

The pressure group added that the measure “threatens to hamstring cryptocurrency innovation and curtail the privacy rights of cryptocurrency users with overbearing surveillance” and “would force Americans using cryptocurrency to share intrusive details about themselves, both with each other and with the federal government.”

Instead of preserving the “uniquely private” nature of crypto transactions, the lawyers added, the relevant clauses in the act open the door to potential intrusion from “third parties,” writing:

“If [...] a third party learns the real name of a person using a cryptocurrency address, then she can use the public ledger as a comprehensive database of all transactions sent to or received by that person.”

As such, they continued, “reports to the