Bloomberg Tax
Nov. 18, 2021, 4:41 PM

IRS Sees Crypto Seizures Worth Billions of Dollars Next Year (1)

Allyson Versprille
Allyson Versprille
Reporter
Laura Davison
Laura Davison
Bloomberg News

The Internal Revenue Service could seize cryptocurrency valued at billions of dollars that’s linked to tax fraud and other crimes in the coming year, according to the agency’s head of criminal investigations.

The IRS seized $3.5 billion worth of cryptocurrencies during fiscal year 2021, a figure that accounted for 93% of all the assets seized by tax enforcement that year, according to an IRS criminal investigation annual report published Thursday.

“I expect a trend of crypto seizures to continue as we move forward into fiscal year ‘22,” IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jim Lee said on a call with reporters. “We’re ...