When we think of things we can do with crypto, our minds tend to go to investments. There is a good reason for this as the digital asset investment space is thriving at the moment. Tokens like Bitcoin and Ether are worth thousands of dollars per unit and newer cryptos are raising millions in presales.
With that in mind, investors are always looking to maximize their crypto earnings. As Eliman Dambell has explained, many are on the hunt for the next 1000x cryptocurrency investment. But as Ohio lawmakers are looking to explore, crypto can also be used for tax purposes.
Ohio State Senator Niraj Antani has proposed a new bill that would allow citizens to pay their taxes using cryptocurrency. Given how much crypto is used both for investment and for domestic spending, there will be a sizable market of people who might be interested in this.
If this bill gets passed, all Ohio political subdivisions will have to accept Bitcoin and other cryptos from taxpayers. It will also allow state pensions to invest in cryptocurrency, which has been a growing trend around the world. The performance of many crypto assets eclipses that of traditional investment and more institutions are looking to tap into it. This year saw the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, which shows just how large the appetite for crypto assets has become. This move could help to drive crypto adoption and this is something Senator Antani touched on in a recent public statement.
“If we want to encourage innovation and free enterprise in Ohio, we should do everything we can to normalize the use of cryptocurrencies.
By allowing Ohioans to pay their taxes and fees with cryptocurrency, we will be on the cutting edge,” he said.
Taxes related to crypto have been a hot-button issue for years now. As digital assets became more widely used, governments began paying more attention to their taxation. In fact, some tax agencies have gone through years of backlog to prosecute investors who did not pay taxes on their assets, even demanding information from crypto exchanges.
Then we have to consider that more businesses are accepting crypto for their goods and services. Typically, these businesses would have to convert their funds to fiat currency and then pay taxes on them, navigating not just standard tax codes but also conversions. If this bill passes, the process can be simplified for the crypto-using population.
It is worth noting that this sort of initiative has been pushed in the past. Back in 2018, Ohio became the first US state to allow for tax payment via crypto, It ran into some issues when the Attorney General ruled that the State Board of Deposits would have to approve the initiative. Now, Senator Antani is looking to try again and this time, succeed.
“This policy should have been acted on by the State Board of Deposits when it was deemed necessary. Since they have failed to act, the legislature will,” he says.