This is why Bitcoin Wins.....
Congress passed a law (in the *One Big Beautiful Bill Act*) that adds a **1% federal excise tax** on certain **outgoing remittance transfers**—basically, when someone in the U.S. sends money abroad **using cash or similar instruments**. The IRS is now proposing the detailed rules for how that tax will apply.
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### 💵 When the 1% tax applies
The tax applies **only** when the sender funds the transfer with:
- **Cash**
- **Money orders**
- **Cashier’s checks**
- **Traveler’s checks** (newly added in the proposed regs)
- **A check that the provider cashes** and then uses to fund the transfer (the IRS says this counts as a cash transaction)
It **does NOT apply** when the transfer is funded by:
- A bank account (checking, savings, credit union, etc.)
- A U.S.-issued debit or credit card
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### 📌 Key points the proposed regulations clarify
- **No small‑provider safe harbor**:
Regulation E normally exempts small remittance providers (under 500 transfers/year).
**The IRS rejected that exemption.**
Even tiny providers must collect the 1% tax.
- **Tax base**:
The 1% is calculated on the **amount sent to the recipient**, including:
- Promotional bonuses or incentives added to the transfer
But **excluding**:
- Service fees
- The excise tax itself
- **Who pays and who files**:
The **sender** owes the tax, but the **remittance transfer provider** must collect it and remit it on **Form 720** quarterly.
If the provider fails to collect it, **they** become liable.
- **Effective date**:
Applies to transfers **after 12/31/2025**.
Taxpayers can rely on these proposed rules until final regulations are issued.
- **Public comments**:
IRS is accepting comments until **June 12, 2026**.
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### 🧠 What this means in practice
If someone walks into a store or money‑transfer business and pays **cash** to send $500 to another country, the provider must charge an additional **1% excise tax ($5)** and remit it to the IRS.
If the same person pays using a **bank account or debit card**, **no excise tax** applies.
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If you want, I can break down how this might affect specific businesses (e.g., check cashers, convenience stores, money transmitters) or how compliance works for Form 720.
SEC Suspends Engagement Partner on Prager Metis Audits of Collapsed Crypto Exchange FTX
By Bill Flook, Checkpoint News
The SEC has suspended Francis Decker, the Prager Metis CPAs, LLC engagement partner who led the firm's audits of crypto exchange FTX before its late 2022 collapse.
The April 8, 2026, order, issued under Rule 102(e) of the commission's Rules of Practice, denies Decker the privilege of appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant, with the right to seek reinstatement after two years.
Decker, under the settlement, neither admitted nor denied the SEC's findings.
The order is part of the still-lingering fallout from the collapse of FTX, which exposed widespread governance, accounting, and customer asset protection lapses at the crypto exchange and led to a 25-year prison sentence for its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. The criminal charges focused on Bankman-Fried's misappropriation of customer funds to route to affiliated crypto trading fund Alameda Research LLC, political contributions, and other personal uses. The SEC also charged Bankman-Fried, among other former FTX executives, and, later, Prager Metis.
In its order against Decker, the SEC describes a "foundational failure" to meet Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) stemming from his insufficient understanding of the crypto exchange or the markets in which it operated.
Decker, as engagement partner, led a Prager Metis team auditing FTX's financial statements, for which the firm issued audit reports in July 2021 and April 2022.
That team "collectively lacked the competence, experience, and knowledge to appropriately conduct the audits," leading to additional failures in the audits' design and execution, the SEC states in the order.
Most importantly, the SEC said the team did not understand the relationship between FTX and Alameda and the key role the latter played in the former's business.
Despite the interconnected nature of, and significant transactions between, the entities, the SEC says Decker and his team failed to adequately assess the risk of material misstatement arising from that relationship. The order says they failed to sufficiently analyze Alameda's borrowing arrangement with FTX and never properly evaluated Alameda's ability to borrow virtually unlimited amounts.
The SEC also says Decker failed to exercise appropriate professional judgment, skepticism, and due care throughout the audits. Among other things, the order says he did not properly assess client acceptance, did not ensure the engagement was staffed with competent personnel, failed to design procedures to properly respond to the risks of material misstatement, and failed to properly finalize audit documentation.
An attorney for Decker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Decker order follows settled charges the SEC filed against Prager Metis in September 2024 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging negligence-based fraud in connection with its FTX engagement. Decker was not named as a defendant in that matter.
The firm agreed to pay a $745,000 civil penalty, while undertaking remedial measures and adhering to certain restrictions on accepting new audit clients. Prager Metis, at the same time, also resolved a separate SEC matter over auditor independence violations unrelated to its FTX engagement, in which it agreed to pay a combined $1.2 million in civil monetary penalties, disgorgement, and prejudgment interest.
Document Title:SEC Suspends Engagement Partner on Prager Metis Audits of Collapsed Crypto Exchange FTX (04/10/2026)
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