Starting from today, businesses in the US state of Ohio can now pay their taxes using Bitcoin (BTC), marking the first state within the nation to officially accept Cryptocurrencies to pay for such transactions.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, companies who want to take advantage of this development can go to OhioCrypto.com. Here, they can register to pay whatever corporate taxes they need, whether it be cigarette sales taxes, employee withholding taxes, etc.
These Payments will reportedly be processed by BitPay, a cryptocurrency payments service, which will convert the BTC to dollars. Initially, this service will only apply to businesses. However, according to yesterday’s report, there are plans in the works to expand this offering to individual taxpayers in the future.
Josh Mandel
Source: PUBLICPOLICYSTUDY
Bitcoin holders in Ohio have state Treasurer Josh Mandel to thank, who told reporters that he is looking to “plan[t] a flag” for Ohio in regards to the adoption of cryptocurrency nationwide.
Specifically, he said: “I do see [bitcoin] as a legitimate form of currency.”
Mandel’s term as the state Treasurer will end in January. However, he told the Wall Street Journal that he is “confident that this cryptocurrency initiative will continue” after his term ends.
Furthermore, the news outlet went on to report that Mandel told journalists that he can decide that his office will accept the digital currency “without approval from the legislature or governor.”
Proposals for Accepting BTC for Tax Payments Held up around America
Ohio isn’t the only state within America to propose accepting BTC for taxes. Places such as Arizona, Georgia, and Illinois have proposed several bills that seek the acceptance of virtual currencies as payment for taxes. However, they have not gotten past state legislatures.
Towards the beginning of this year, the state of Georgia also introduced a bill very similar to that of Ohio’s. However, at the time of publishing the bill’s status is “dead.”
