Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Crashed into a group of cryptocurrency firms and professionals on Monday. To justify the use of a tax advantage This means increasing low -income neighborhoods, that is Announced by HuffPost It is used in lieu of cryptocurrency by wealthy investors to reduce taxes with dubious benefits for the local community.
The tax incentive, created by the Republican-signed 2017 bill, offers wealthy investors and corporations significant tax cuts on capital gains in exchange for building homes or businesses in federally designated low-income neighborhoods as “places of opportunity”.
The program was created with two party support. But there is It will fall under fire When government fraud emerged after evidence that billions of tax breaks were gone Projects such as luxury accommodationHigh class hotels and self-catering facilities.
Now Widen is asking for details from a cryptocurrency mining company, a data center company that leases space to people interested in cryptocurrencies, and an accountant who uses a program of opportunity zones in several cryptocurrency client. Every company and accountant was identified by HuffPost in February history.
Sent by Weiden Request information On the number of temporary and permanent jobs their investors are meant to do and how much tax advantage they will get from their Opportunity Zone program.
“I have long been concerned that the Opportunity Zone program could offer wealthy investors another opportunity to avoid billions of dollars in taxes so as not to bring significant benefits to communities in need,” he wrote. Wyden in a letter.
“I am also concerned about recent reports that companies involved in cryptocurrency mining may be trying to avoid taxes without significant benefits to vulnerable communities,” he continued.
A request was made to Argo Blockchain, a London -based public cryptocurrency mining trading company that is building a billion dollar mining opportunity zone in Dickens County, Texas. Argo researched whether it could operate as a business in a zone of opportunity, HuffPost said LearnedA company spokesman said it had finally decided to object.
The second letter was sent to Blake Christian, CPA, who told HuffPost that he has helped more than a dozen crypto millionaires invest their profits in data centers located in zones of opportunity. In one case, Christian created a management company in a Capability Zone for a data center located outside the United States.
The third is moving to Blockchain Redivider, which organizes prefabricated data centers in capacity zones across the country. The firm does not work exclusively with cryptocurrency miners, although it does serve one of its first Bitcoin mining centers in Homestead, Florida. One of Redivider’s advisors was Daniel Kowalski, a former Treasury official who helped write the Zone of Opportunity policies under former Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Argo, the reviewer, and Christian did not immediately comment on Weiden’s request.
Critics of the Opportunity Zone program interviewed by HuffPost are not opposed to cryptocurrency mining per se. But they questioned the need to use federal tax dollars to cover an unstable industry that has not struggled to grow on its own.
“Why do we take taxpayers’ income and subsidize everything we want to spend with our country’s money?” Said Brett Theodosius, a researcher at the Urban Institute.
Wyden, who introduced legislation requiring investors to be more clear about funded projects in areas of opportunity, responded to their concerns.
“Currently, such companies are not obligated to demonstrate the benefits they provide to the low -income communities they claim they help,” he wrote. “Currently, the lack of guarantees and transparency in the Opportunity Zone program allows taxpayers to provide assistance to companies involved in cryptocurrency mining.”
Source: Huffpost
