The White House is looking at a new proposal that could give the IRS wider access to information about U.S. taxpayers who trade crypto on foreign platforms. This comes as the government continues to push for stronger tax oversight in the digital asset space.
The proposal was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Friday. This office, which is part of the White House budget branch, reviews federal rules to make sure they match the administration’s policy goals.
Earlier this year, the administration released a detailed report on digital assets. One of the key points in that report was that the current system has gaps, especially when it comes to offshore crypto activity and tax compliance.
To fix this, the report recommended that the IRS and Treasury consider adopting rules that line up with the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) — an international standard created to improve tax transparency.
Under that system, crypto service providers would be required to share transaction data with regulators, making it harder for taxpayers to hide digital assets overseas.
According to the White House, following these international standards would help reduce the incentive for Americans to move their crypto to offshore platforms. It could also strengthen the U.S. market by keeping more activity within regulated channels. The administration also warned that without these updates, the U.S. could fall behind other countries that have already adopted similar reporting rules.
But the report also made one thing clear: these changes should not create extra reporting requirements for decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions. The administration signaled that DeFi activity should remain outside the scope of any new rule, at least for now.
In short, the White House is moving toward tighter tax oversight for offshore crypto activity — but still wants to avoid overregulating DeFi.
