The U.S. Justice Department, business groups and crypto firms filed briefs backing a lawsuit to strike down Illinois’ Digital Asset Tax Act. The law would levy 0.2% of a digital asset’s full value each time an Illinois customer trades, transfers or stores it through a broker, even without a sale or gain. Illinois has agreed to pause the tax until July 1, 2027, while the case proceeds.
The Justice Department called the tax vague and discriminatory. The Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street group SIFMA warned that it could also affect traditional financial firms, while crypto firms argued that its definitions could extend to software developers and decentralized protocols that cannot identify users or locate transactions.
