- Tax collector green lights Bitcoin and Bitcoin Core tax payments in Florida
- Agreement with BitPay permits payment for taxes, car tags and titles, licences and property taxes
Paying your taxes just got easier – if you live in Florida, USA, anyway. The world’s largest blockchain international money transfers provider, BitPay, has announced a new agreement with Florida’s Seminole County Tax Collector to allow taxpayers to pay their tax bills using Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Core (BCH).
The new initiative will commence this summer and it won’t be confined to income tax. Floridians will also be able to pay for ID cards, driver’s licences and property taxes with BitPay’s cryptocurrencies.
Florida’s tax collector Joel M. Greenberg confirmed the new development this week, explaining that we now live in a world of services on demand and same-day delivery thanks to advances in technology. In such a climate, customer expectations, he said, expect nothing less than top-level efficiency in customer services. They should expect the same efficiency from government, too, he said, adding:
“The aim of my tenure in office is to make our customer experience faster, smarter, and more efficient, and to bring government services from the 18th century into the 21st century and one way is the addition of cryptocurrency to our payment options.”
While some currency watchers have previously suggested that cryptos were a morally dubious currency, it is perhaps more pragmatic to see digital coins as an ‘amoral’ technology: the question isn’t so much “Is it right or wrong?” but, “Now that we have it, what shall we do with it?”
Fears that it may be used to fund the nefarious machinations of terrorist groups can be offset against obvious benefits like financing vacation gateways, housing and (courtesy of this latest innovation from BitPay) paying taxes. Governments, of course, are notoriously reluctant to embrace innovation – except, of course, when it comes to smart new revenue collection methods. Suddenly, when that’s on the table, they become eager technophiles cheerfully promoting the winds of progress.
Taxpayers have been able to pay their IRS bills using credit and debit cards for some time. But typically, those tasked with processing that method of payment help themselves to handsome cuts for their efforts. With the rise of crypto and BitPay Visa, they’re probably going to have start thinking of other ways to earn their daily bread. Those using the new upstart cryptocurrency tech find themselves in a win-win situation.
BitPay’s Head of Compliance Jeremie Beaudry said: “BitPay was started because we recognized the potential for blockchain to revolutionize the financial industry, making payments faster, more secure, and less expensive on a global scale. With the Seminole County Tax Collector’s office, we have engaged our first government agency to accept bitcoin and bitcoin cash by making it easy and seamless for them.”
As noted earlier, the agreement between BitPay and Seminole County is pretty comprehensive, permitting BTC and BCH to be used to pay for well-nigh everything under the county rubric, from taxes to car tags and titles, licences and property taxes.
When taxpayers use BitPay to make their tax payments, the county will receive its money by the next business day directly into the right account and in US dollars. BitPay explains that a push transaction lets users send precisely the correct amount of BTC or BCH to settle the bill. And happily, the process eliminates all the risks associated with credit cards, such as identity theft and credit card fraud.
