Aug 15, 06:45 PM

New York Lawmaker Seeks 0.2% Tax on Crypto Trades to Fund Addiction Programs

New York State Assemblymember Phil Steck has introduced Bill A0966, which would impose a 0.2% excise tax on all digital-asset transactions conducted in the state, including trades of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and tokens obtained through mining or staking. If enacted, the levy would take effect in September and be collected on each transaction’s dollar value, similar to the way stock-transfer taxes are assessed. Steck, a Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, projects the measure could raise about $158 million a year. The estimate is based on Chainalysis data showing roughly $1 trillion in crypto sent to U.S. addresses in the 12 months to June 2023, adjusted for New York’s share of national GDP. Proceeds would be directed to expand substance-abuse prevention and intervention programs in upstate schools, an area hard hit by the opioid epidemic. The proposal adds to a string of state-level efforts to regulate and tax the fast-growing digital-asset sector. New York already subjects crypto gains to capital-gains, gift and estate taxes, and oversees industry firms under its BitLicense regime. Steck argues an additional transaction tax is justified given the market’s volatility, history of fraud allegations and environmental impact from energy-intensive mining. The bill will be taken up in the next legislative session; industry representatives have not yet publicly responded.