Everyday crypto users face monthly tax bills on total asset value if covered brokers fail to collect under new Illinois rules

Illinois’s 0.2% digital asset tax, scheduled to start Jan. 1, 2027, now faces another industry complaint as brokers prepare for a levy tied to the value of customer assets rather than their gains or service fees.

Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation said they filed the complaint on Aug. 21 in the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Sangamon County. The filing came one month after The Digital Chamber announced a separate Sangamon County challenge.

The new complaint names Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser in their official capacities. The plaintiffs seek a declaration that the Digital Asset Tax Act is invalid, plus preliminary and permanent injunctions blocking implementation and enforcement.

Their seven counts allege preemption under the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, violations of the Commerce Clause and federal and state due process protections, and breaches of Illinois constitutional rules on tax uniformity, delegation and the legislative process. Those are allegations, not judicial findings.

The two complaints have different captions and defendant lineups. Neither group’s public materials report a joint schedule or court order coordinating, joining or consolidating them. The version of the Blockchain Association and CCI complaint posted by the plaintiffs also leaves its case-number field blank.

What the January deadline means for brokers

The enacted statute taxes an Illinois customer’s receipt of covered digital asset business activity at 0.2% of the value of the asset involved. A broker making or effectuating the sale must collect the tax.

Covered activity includes a single occurrence of exchanging, transferring or storing a digital asset as part of a business or on behalf of a customer who agreed to receive those services. The rule does not make every direct self-custody transfer a broker-collected event; the taxable transaction requires activity supplied by a digital asset broker for valuable consideration.

For a remote broker headquartered outside Illinois, the collection nexus applies when gross receipts from covered digital asset business activity sales to Illinois customers reach at least $100,000 over the preceding 12 months. Illinois requires the test quarterly. Once the threshold is met, the broker is treated as maintaining a place of business in the state and must collect, remit and file returns for one year. Registration requirements are addressed separately.

If an Illinois customer purchases taxable digital asset business activity and the broker does not charge the tax, the customer must remit it by the 20th day of the following month in the form prescribed by the Department of Revenue.

The new plaintiffs have asked for relief that could stop enforcement, but filing the complaint did not itself suspend the Act. Their public materials report no injunction or court timetable. Unless a court enters relief or the law changes, Jan. 1 remains the operative compliance date.

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