Illinois drafts rules for a 0.2% digital asset tax

Illinois is moving ahead with a tax that charges crypto activity by value, and the draft rules now show how it would work. The state's Department of Revenue posted them on September 28, according to the law firm Lowenstein Sandler.

The Digital Asset Tax Act sets the rate at 0.2% of the value of digital assets exchanged, transferred or stored. It takes effect on January 1, 2027. Brokers based outside Illinois are covered once they reach $100,000 in gross receipts from the state, so serving Illinois customers from elsewhere does not avoid it.

Most crypto taxation targets gains or income. This one applies to the transaction itself, which makes it closer to a financial transaction tax and new territory for the sector. The exclusions decide who pays. DeFi swaps, peer-to-peer trades and token issuers are left out, so the cost falls on centralized platforms and, most likely, on the customers they pass it to.

That design leaves two questions for the final rules: how a platform values an asset at the moment of a transfer, and how "stored" is measured for assets that simply sit in custody. Comments on the draft are due October 30. Platforms with Illinois users have until the start of 2027 to build the systems to collect and report it.