The Crypto Tax That Saves Crypto

One of the main reasons crypto is not going mainstream is that it has complicated tax implications every time it is used. Here’s a simple framework that could be enacted to both spur crypto utility and drive revenue to the state. My apologies if this has been proposed before and shredded by cynical Reddit kids.

We all HATE taxes, but if you, as a faithful hodler, could pay for goods and services with crypto to any merchant and NOT pay the capital gains tax, but instead pay a sales tax of modest proportion, say 2%, one percent going to the federal government and one percent going to the state government, wouldn’t you be inclined to actually spend some of it?

Taxes for merchants accepting crypto would be quite straightforward. For all transactions they accept in Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP, Cardano, whatever they choose to accept (and I’m not saying every crypto would be allowed under this umbrella automatically), they would pay the government, in said crypto, at the end of the fiscal year or quarter 1% of everything they collected. The merchant is allowed at any time to liquidate the crypto into USD or whatever the fiat of the realm is, tax free. They simply owe the crypto at the end of the tax period. Thus, the merchant doesn’t need to take on volatility risk of holding much crypto at all.

The additional benefit of this is that the State now can build a crypto reserve from tax revenue, without spending a dime.

I’m fairly certain that online retailers like an Amazon, EBay, Walmart, any Shopify stores etc, could add to their payment systems fairly easily, and this would catalyze some serious spending and tax revenue. I’ve always been disappointed in how reluctant online merchants are to accept it, because the use case has been there for years, but very few have taken the plunge, probably because of taxes.

I have the feeling that the government would be more interested in a regular stream of income like this than a somewhat lumpy revenue stream from capital gains which is only had when crypto prices are rising. The IRS does not publish a standalone figure for crypto capital gains tax receipts, but let’s say in a bull year there are $100B of realized gains, taxed at a rate of 15% effectively, they’d receive a nice $15B revenue stream. If it’s a bear year, I’m sure they are getting a lot less. Now let’s assume that the crypto tax for merchants accepting crypto is enacted. Let’s say 1% of all dollar value in the USA in 2024 and 2025 was in crypto and eligible for this tax. Feel free to argue the numbers with me, but after some quick research, the total value of goods and services purchased in the USA was 19.8 Trillion in 2024 and 20.96 Trillion in 2025 based on FRED/BEA numbers. So if there was a 2% tax on 1% of all that transacted value, the total revenue stream would be almost 4 Billion in 2024 and slightly more than that in 2025.

Crypto should be utilized! Rather than some foggy de minimus tax, I think this sort of special treatment for merchants would make people want to buy and use crypto for typical transactions.

Note that, I would not excuse people from paying capital gains on trading crypto for crypto on exchanges, although that would be amazing, I’m sure that would not fly. But simply buying crypto, holding onto it and taking the risk that the value in it might simply evaporate, and then using it in a useful commercial transaction should warrant this treatment. Just my opinion!

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