Illinois has agreed with two digital-asset industry groups to ask a court to postpone the state’s new 0.2% Digital Asset Tax Act until July 1, 2027. The tax is still scheduled to start January 1, 2027: as of October 2, 2026, the Sangamon County court had not approved the requested delay. The lawsuit remains unresolved.
Has Illinois’s crypto tax actually been delayed?
Not yet, based on the latest court-status reporting available through October 2, 2026. Illinois, the Digital Chamber and the Illinois Blockchain Association jointly asked the Sangamon County Circuit Court for a six-month postponement. The request would keep an injunction in place until July 1, 2027, unless a further court order modified or dissolved it. The judge had not ruled when the October 2 report was published. BlockchainReporter reported the pending request; CoinDesk covered the agreement.
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That distinction matters: an agreement to seek a delay is not a court order, and it does not change the statute’s start date by itself. The enacted law schedules the tax to begin January 1, 2027. The requested July date would take effect only if the court grants the requested relief.
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What Illinois’s Digital Asset Tax Act would tax
Illinois Public Act 104-0468 imposes a tax of 0.2% on the value of specified digital asset business activity received by a customer in Illinois. A broker that makes or effects covered activity is responsible for collecting the tax. The statute includes activities such as selling, transferring and storing digital assets through a broker. Its definition of transfer includes moving an asset between a customer’s accounts or storage, as well as relinquishing control to another person. Read the enacted Public Act 104-0468.
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This is not described in the statute as a general personal income tax on cryptocurrency holdings or gains. Its stated mechanism is a tax on covered business activity, collected by brokers. Whether particular transactions or services fall within the law depends on the statutory definitions and eventual implementation.
Why the industry groups are challenging the law
The industry plaintiffs have raised a range of state and federal legal objections, including claims involving Illinois’s constitutional uniformity requirement, due process, proportionate penalties and personal-property-tax rules. Their federal theories include the Commerce Clause, due process and the Internet Tax Freedom Act. These are allegations in the lawsuit, not findings by a court; Illinois’s defendants dispute the challenges, and the merits had not been decided in the cited October reporting.
The groups had sought preliminary relief before agreeing to the requested postponement. CoinDesk reported that they asked for a temporary stop on September 9, citing compliance costs businesses were already incurring to prepare. Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone described the industry’s position as seeking permanent repeal through the courts, but the agreed timing request does not resolve that larger dispute.
Draft rules and public comments are a separate process
On September 28, 2026, the Illinois Department of Revenue posted draft proposed rules and invited comments through October 30, 2026. The department said the drafts had not been filed with the Secretary of State or submitted to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. See IDOR’s notice on the draft rules.
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The rulemaking schedule does not establish that the court has granted a delay, and posted drafts are not final rules. The comment deadline is October 30, 2026.
Illinois’s tax is not the federal crypto reporting rule
The Illinois law and federal digital-asset broker requirements have different authorities and purposes. Illinois’s act is a state tax on defined business activity, with brokers collecting the tax. The federal Treasury and IRS regime requires information reporting by brokers; Treasury said gross-proceeds reporting begins in 2026 for sales made in 2025, while certain tax-basis reporting begins in 2027 for sales made in 2026. Treasury described the federal requirements as reporting rules, not a new tax on digital assets. Read the Treasury and IRS announcement of June 28, 2024.
| Feature | Illinois Digital Asset Tax Act | Federal broker reporting |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | Illinois Public Act 104-0468 | U.S. Treasury and IRS regulations implementing federal reporting requirements |
| Mechanism | 0.2% tax on covered activity value received by an Illinois customer; broker collects it | Broker information reporting, including gross proceeds and, on a separate timeline, certain basis information |
| Key timing | Statutory start: January 1, 2027. A requested postponement to July 1, 2027 remained pending as of October 2, 2026. | Gross-proceeds reporting in 2026 for 2025 sales; certain tax-basis reporting in 2027 for 2026 sales, according to Treasury’s June 28, 2024 announcement. |
| Status described in cited sources | Joint request for court relief pending; no ruling reported by October 2, 2026. | Treasury described the federal requirements as final regulations. |
Treasury and the IRS said that existing tax obligations on sales or exchanges were not changed by the federal reporting law: “Owners of digital assets have always owed tax on the sale or exchange of digital assets, and the IIJA did not change that or impose any new taxes on digital assets.” That statement concerns federal tax treatment; it does not decide the validity or effect of Illinois’s separate statute.
What Illinois crypto users and businesses should watch
- The court docket: The requested injunction—not the parties’ agreement alone—would determine whether the January 1, 2027 start is postponed.
- The rulemaking: IDOR’s draft rules were open for comment through October 30, 2026, but had not yet been formally filed or sent to JCAR when the department posted its notice.
- The lawsuit: The constitutional and federal-law arguments remain contested until a court rules; a delay would provide time for litigation but would not itself settle the claims.
The procedural status above reflects reporting available through October 2, 2026. No later court ruling is established by the cited sources.
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