At the American Bar Association Section of Taxation Conference held on May 12, 2018, the IRS' plan to begin strictly enforcing the requirement to withhold taxes for cryptocurrency payments to nonresident aliens this year was discussed. Although this requirement to withhold 30 percent of payments to nonresident aliens is already set out under IRC Section 1441, the IRS is only recently determined to enforce the requirement this year given the emerging rise of the use of cryptocurrencies. The U.S. Department of Justice is also said to develop a larger ecosystem to support the prosecution of matters related to the use of cryptocurrencies, as the Justice Department gains substantial institutional knowledge by pursuing crypto-related crimes in matters in recent years, including the Silk-Road money-laundering case. For more information, see https://www.law360.com/articles/1042247/irs-to-start-enforcing-crypto-withholding-rule-panelist-says.
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