Ohio Becomes The First US State to Accept Tax Payments in Bitcoin
Last updated June 19, 2021
- Business owners in Ohio will be able to pay their taxes via Bitcoin starting this week.
- Tax settlements and payments will be redirected to OhioCrypto, which will handle corporate taxes.
- The Ohio government has partnered with BitPay to handle all cryptocurrency transactions and dollar conversions.
Ohio is set to become the first state in the United States to accept Bitcoin as a form of tax payments for businesses. The move to implement Bitcoin was first suggested by Ohio’s current treasurer Josh Mandel who wants the state to be rebranded with new tech ideas and forward thinking. Payments will be redirected to OhioCrypto.com (soon to be launched), a new website by the government that will see its payments being handled by BitPay.
It is not just tax payments that are being accepted via Bitcoin payments. The Great Lakes Science Center in Ohio started accepting payments from visitors using the cryptocurrency earlier this month. The museum hopes the move can improve the blockchain industry.
Cryptocurrency has not been accepted as an official means of paying taxes in any of the other states due to their prices being extremely volatile. While 2017 was the year of cryptocurrency with staggeringly high prices, 2018 has not been too kind to crypto. Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies crashed this year, and the downward decline continues even now. The value of Bitcoin has dipped under $4,000 marking a 75% decrease in value this year and an 82% dip if you consider its high of $19,666 last year.
However, using platforms like Coinbase or BitPay, both the Ohio government and taxpayers are secured from price volatility. Director of crypto research firm Coin Center stated that Ohio accepting tax payments is a good sign and it can encourage others to adopt cryptocurrency. While digital currencies have a bad rapport for being used by criminals to mask their activity, they can also be used by legitimate bodies and even governments legally. The move by Ohio can prompt other places in the world to start accepting cryptocurrency as well.
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