Illinois agrees to push its 0.2% crypto tax to July 2027; at today's price that is about $168 per bitcoin

Illinois has agreed to delay its new 0.2% tax on crypto transactions by six months, to July 1, if a judge signs off, CoinDesk reported. The Digital Chamber and the Illinois Blockchain Association negotiated the postponement with state officials, and a joint request was expected to be filed Thursday in the circuit court in Sangamon County, according to the report.

The delay does not end the fight. The industry groups argue the tax is unconstitutional and preempted by the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, and both sides want to move straight to those legal questions rather than argue over an injunction. Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone said in a statement quoted by CoinDesk that the group will "continue to seek to have this tax permanently repealed through the courts."

What the state's own rules say the tax actually is

Most coverage describes this as a 0.2% crypto tax and stops there. The Illinois Department of Revenue's draft proposed rules, posted Sept. 28 and open for comment through Oct. 30, fill in the part that matters for anyone moving money:

• It is charged on the value of the crypto, not on the fee. The rate is "0.2% of the value of the digital asset being exchanged, transferred, or stored," valued when the transaction completes. A trade with a $5 exchange fee on $10,000 of bitcoin would carry $20 of tax.
• The current start date in the draft is Jan. 1, 2027. The agreed delay would move it to July 1, 2027.
• Brokers collect it. Centralized exchanges, custodians, broker-dealers, payment processors and DeFi exchanges that take a protocol fee all count as "digital asset brokers." DeFi venues whose swap fees go only to liquidity pools do not.
• Out-of-state firms are caught once their gross receipts from Illinois customers reach $100,000.
• Storage is taxed once. Buying crypto and leaving it in an exchange wallet is one taxable event, not a recurring charge, unless you later pay separately for storage.

At Coinbase's price of $83,851 for one bitcoin on Thursday morning, the tax on moving a single coin would be about $168. The draft defines an exchange as buying, selling, trading or converting, so for a trader who buys and later sells the same coin each leg is a separate taxable event and a round trip costs about 0.4% of the value before any exchange fee. Network and gas fees are not counted as the taxable consideration under the draft.

Who it does not hit: shops that take crypto

For business owners, the useful line is the retail carve-out. The draft states that Illinois retailers that accept digital assets as payment "are not considered digital asset brokers" and "shall not charge this tax to their retail customers." That covers both the customer paying the store in crypto and the store's payment processor converting it to dollars, according to the rules. A coffee shop or contractor in Illinois that takes bitcoin through a processor would not be collecting the tax.

For active Illinois traders, nothing changes before the court rules. Until then, the fixed points are the Oct. 30 comment deadline on the rules and the judge's decision on the delay.

Sources: CoinDesk; Illinois Department of Revenue, Digital Asset Tax and its draft proposed rules; bitcoin price from Coinbase Exchange. This is market information, not investment or tax advice.