Crypto Exchange Kraken Blasts IRS Summons as ‘Treasure Hunt’
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Kraken is pushing back against the Internal Revenue Service, arguing the agency’s demands for information about the cryptocurrency exchange’s users amounts to an “unjustified treasure hunt.”
After hitting an impasse in negotiations to narrow the scope of the government’s inquiry, Kraken is now asking a federal court in San Francisco to order the IRS to back off. The agency says it’s investigating users who might be underreporting their tax liability.
In a petition to enforce its summons filed in February, the IRS said it’s seeking to identify Kraken accounts that did at least $20,000 of cryptocurrency trading in any single year, from 2016 to 2020. But Kraken argues the IRS has gone well beyond the boundaries set by US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in a similar fight with Coinbase about six years ago.
“Rather than abide by Coinbase’s ground rules, the IRS doubles down, making even more expansive requests and relying on a thinner rationale,” Kraken argued in a court filing.
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