Ohio Becomes First State to Accept Bitcoin For Tax Payments

Ohio, a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States is becoming the first US state to accept the Bitcoin cryptocurrency for tax payments. This is a good news for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency amidst recent negative news about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market. The state of Ohio will accept Bitcoin for Ohio business tax payments starting this week, reported WSJ.

This step initially involves only businesses and will elongate the libation to taxpayers in the future. Commencing this week, Ohio-based businesses will be empowered to file to pay all of their taxes in the chief cryptocurrency. The payments are anchored to be concocted via crypto payments service BitPay.

The Ohio Treasurer’s Office

The Ohio Treasurer’s office announced that it is serving to make the state a kingpin in the blockchain, the secreted platform for bitcoin. Blockchain can be utilized for many distinct types of business transactions such as supply chain tracking to the creation of a mesh network for IoT devices.

Bitcoin has been fighting to convert into a comprehensive form of payment. The Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says that Bitcoin for business tax payments has numerous advantages on the OhioCrypto.com website, such as it is swift and simple, trackable, secure, open, acquires low fees, and permits taxes to be paid via mobile devices.

There are 23 taxes that can be paid with Bitcoin such as sales tax and withholdings taxes. The initial Ohio businesses will be authorized to pay these eligible taxes via the OhioCrypto.com site. The Ohio Treasury is looking to combine more established cryptocurrencies in the future.

Ohio will become the first state in the U.S. to accept Bitcoin for business tax bills, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

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— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) November 26, 2018

Amidst the negative news of dropping Bitcoin prices, Ohio’s recognition of Bitcoin for business tax payments is a great news for the cryptocurrency market. Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel said that

We are proud to make Ohio the first state in the nation to accept tax payments via cryptocurrency. We’re doing this to provide Ohioans more options and ease in paying their taxes and also to project Ohio’s leadership in embracing blockchain technology.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mandel, who has manifested an interest in cryptocurrency in recent years has called bitcoin as a “legitimate form of currency. He also told the Journal that he believes other states will follow Ohio’s model.

In the month of February 2018, the state of Arizona was also considering of including measures for taxpayers to pay off their tax returns with Bitcoins. Instead of seeing these cryptocurrencies as a medium to tax-evasion and other criminal movements, the state was thinking about cryptocurrencies as currency instead of a commodity, but it will also allow taxpayers in Arizona the option to pay their taxes with Bitcoin.

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Jeff Weninger, State Representative of Arizona had said that

It’s one of a litany of bills that we’re running that is sending a signal to everyone in the United States, and possibly throughout the world, that Arizona is going to be the place to be for blockchain and digital currency technology in the future.

The current move by Ohio comes at a bad time for bitcoin, which has seen its value fall in recent months. Based on the forecast made by the World Economic Forum, governments will start accepting tax payments via a blockchain by 2023 at the earliest. WEF had also suggested that bitcoin and the blockchain would reach a “tipping point”, or a point at which it becomes broadly adopted, by 2027.

Disclaimer: This information should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any cryptocurrency. It is not a recommendation to trade. The cryptocurrency market is full of surprises and overhyped assets. Do your research before buying anything. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose.

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