The Oregon Senator wrote letters to crypto miners Argo Blockchain and Redivider Blockchain and to Opportunity Zone specialist accountant from accounting firm HCVT Blake Christian.
A new initiative for clarity related to compliance from the Senator of the Finance Committee aims to ensure properly that the economically distressed people are receiving different benefits from the companies that are associated with crypto mining.
According to news reports from good crypto sites, Ron Wyden, the Democratic Senator has been trying to find out more about the different crypto companies that are trying to take advantage of the breaks in tax that are provided by the Opportunity Zone program.
The main concern of the Senator comes from the idea that certain crypto companies might actually be trying to take advantage of the different shortcomings that exist in the community of cryptocurrency.
According to the Senator, there might be some transparency issues as well as some challenges with lack of safeguarding in the program named Opportunity Zone. The concerns that the Senator had been properly raised in several letters that he managed to write to different companies.
The main goal of the Senator is to comprehend the ways with which the crypto companies are trying to provide support to the different communities that have a low-income.
Senator Questions Shortcomings in Opportunity Zone Program
The Oregon Senator wrote letters to crypto miners Argo Blockchain and Redivider Blockchain and to Opportunity Zone specialist accountant from accounting firm HCVT Blake Christian. The Opportunity Zone program was implemented in 2017 and designed to offer tax incentives to companies that create jobs and drive private investment into economically distressed communities.
In his letters to Argo and Redivider, Wyden requested information about the extent to which each company is engaged in the Opportunity Zone program and when they began their involvement with it. He also asks them to provide information about how many jobs their operations have created, which is one of the core Common Good contributions the program was made for.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden is digging into the activities of crypto companies that take advantage of tax breaks provided by the Opportunity Zone program.
Last July, Argo Blockchain CEO Peter Wall specifically stated that the location of his company’s Dickens County, Texas, mining facility was chosen specifically because of its inclusion in the Opportunity Zone and abundance of renewable energy. At the time, he told Cointelegraph that he believed the facility could “reinvigorate the community through the creation of jobs,” which is one of the main concerns of Senator Wyden.
Wyden pulled into question Redivider’s true reason for operating within the Opportunity Zone based on a February 2022 interview with a news channel in which CEO Tom Frazier said his company “100%” would have opened a mining facility with or without the tax break. Currently, only accredited investors can invest in Redivider’s $250 million Opportunity Zone fund.
To Christian, Senator Wyden requested information about what crypto mining projects in the Opportunity Zone his clients are currently invested in and how many jobs those companies are creating. In this letter, Wyden brought up the same Huffpost interview in which Christian said that his client investors were just “looking for a way to save some money because they’re about to get drilled on short term capital gains taxes.”
This insinuates that his clients may simply be looking for a way to offset short-term capital gains taxes by investing in mining operations that receive a tax break.
According to reports from the good crypto sites for news, there has not yet been a response from Argo, Redivider, or Blake Christian. Wyden’s new push for clarity in the crypto industry could be signs of what Blockchain Association Executive Director Kristen Smith called a “bipartisan vibe shift on crypto” in the Senate in a March 26 tweet. Based on her analysis, there is now “progressive, libertarian, moderate, conservative, and liberal” support in both houses to take crypto seriously.
Also Read: Crypto Tax Policy Passed in Indian Parliament Despite Major Pushback from Lawmakers
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