A U.S. court has dismissed crypto investor Roger Metz’s attempt to block an IRS summons for his historical Coinbase financial records. The dismissal was based on procedural grounds, as Metz failed to notify required government entities of his petition. The IRS had sought extensive data for an audit, which Metz argued was overbroad and a privacy breach.
A federal judge has ruled against crypto investor Roger Metz in his effort to quash an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) summons for his Coinbase records. U.S. District Judge Araceli MartÃnez-OlguÃn dismissed the petition because Metz did not notify the relevant government defendants within the required 90-day window.
The IRS initially sought to audit Metz’s 2022 federal tax return. Metz had already filed an amended return for that year, paying an additional $14,700 after discovering an omission by Coinbase.
The agency, however, escalated its request to seek Metz’s entire activity on the platform since its launch. It demanded account information, physical addresses, communications with Coinbase, and detailed activity logs.
Metz argued the summons was ‘overbroad and irrelevant,’ requesting years of data unrelated to the 2022 audit. He contended the move was a privacy breach and that the IRS acted in ‘bad faith’ by not communicating after his amended filing.
The court did not rule on these substantive privacy arguments, basing its decision solely on procedural failure. This leaves unanswered whether the IRS’s broad request would have been deemed a violation.
The IRS maintains a strict crypto tax reporting regime, requiring exchanges to report user sales and cost basis on Form 1099-DA. A mismatch between this form and a user’s reported figures typically triggers further scrutiny.
For the 2025-2026 tax period, the agency has relaxed some rules. It will allow crypto holders to identify and self-report their asset sales for tax purposes.
