As you might have heard, visitors traveling to the US are expected to share information about their social media profiles, but it seems that social media profiles might not be the only thing that they’ll have to declare because in a new proposed bill by Sen. Chuck Grassley, it seems that soon any form of crypto/digital currency you own might need to be declared as well.
Introduced on the 25th of May last month, it basically proposes that travelers to the US declare their digital currencies, such as Bitcoin. At the moment those traveling to the US will have to declare money that they bring into the country if it exceeds $10,000 in value. The idea of declaring digital currencies is that because it technically can follow the owner wherever they go, it’s almost as if they have it on hand like cash.
This is slightly different from other forms of currency or things of value which might not accompany the traveler, such as property or financial assets owned in other countries that do not follow them into the US. Exactly how they will determine if a person has digital currency remains to be seen, just like how it would be impossible to determine if people are bringing more than $10,000 into the country unless each and every person is searched.
However according to Investopedia, it has been suggested that maybe the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act could be expanded to regulate foreign cryptocurrency exchanges, or that there could be some kind of global monitoring system to watch over blockchain ledgers. The bill has yet to be passed so there is a chance that it might not, but for those who own Bitcoin or other similar currencies, it could be worth keeping an eye out for.