A top Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official says, âCryptocurrency is here to stay,â and âitâs becoming more legitimate.â The official added that the U.S. tax authority is looking to partner with crypto companies, noting: âI donât see how we can operate in this space without it.â
Top IRS Official Says Crypto Is Here to Stay
Thomas Fattorusso, acting special agent-in-charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI)âs New York office, talked about cryptocurrency in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.
âWe canât be hostile to the technology. We have to embrace it,â the IRS official emphasized, elaborating:
Cryptocurrency is here to stay. As far as Iâm concerned, it isnât going anywhere anytime soon and itâs becoming more legitimate. As the years roll on, it becomes more sophisticated.
Fattorusso explained that the IRS is looking to partner with crypto companies. âMy thought is that those relationships will develop as the years go on and [as] the companies become more comfortable with dealing with the federal government. I donât see how we can operate in this space without it,â he opined.
Commenting on the IRS cooperating and partnering with crypto firms, Fattorusso shared:
Thatâs something that weâre always working toward ⊠thatâs always the end goal â to have those partnerships and to have a relationship that isnât contentious, more of a symbiotic relationship.
He believes that partnering with federal agencies âhelps them [crypto companies] in their legitimacy.â The IRS official added: âThis is a new industry for everybody. I think weâre still trying to feel our way around it. The companies are feeling their way around it.â
In November last year, IRS Criminal Investigation chief Jim Lee said that the tax authority is building âhundredsâ of crypto cases.