From today, Ohian businesses will be able to pay their taxes in bitcoin – that’s despite recent price drops. Businesses who want to use the cryptocurrency to pay “everything from cigarette sales taxes to employee withholding taxes” need only go to OhioCrypto.com and follow the instructions.
According to the website’s How it Works section, businesses can pay their taxes in three steps. Firstly you’ll have to provide your Ohio Tax Account Number, if you haven’t registered there is a link to get that set up, then you need to enter your tax payment amount and period, from there you send the payment from your bitcoin wallet; payments are processed through the third-party cryptocurrency payment processor, BitPay.
Both Columbus and Cleveland have been re-orienting themselves, the prior has a growing tech hub while the latter is trying to develop the local economy based on blockchain technology. Josh Mandel, Ohio's treasurer, came up with the idea hoping to highlight the state's enthusiasm for the tech industry.
With bitcoin’s volatile price, it will be interesting to see whether businesses that hold bitcoin do actually decide to pay in the cryptocurrency; aside from the fluctuating price, the taxpayer may have to pay over the odds to fund any fees from BitPay, making it cheaper to just pay up in dollars.
Source: WSJ (Paywall) via TechCrunch
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