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Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

November 26, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal announced that the state of Ohio had decided to allow tax payments to be made in Bitcoin. As is typical with any announcement that is gradually filtered through the media, however, the specifics of this quickly became distorted.

Last night, Crypto Twitter became awash with re-tweets of the announcement that seemed to claim that it applied to consumers and businesses alike. Because of this, a bit of clarification on the subject is in order.

To begin, while this new capability for taxpayers is a positive step towards showing the wider world the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies, it is essential to note that consumers are not included in this at all.

According to both Coindesk and the original source, Ohio made this decision in connection with the company Bitpay to help businesses who are already accepting Bitcoin from customers. Due to this Ohio based businesses will be able to send Bitcoin through Bitpay’s payment portal, to the government, using a very simple three-step process.

If you are wondering what exact taxes this includes, Coindesk lists the tobacco sales tax, the employee withholding tax, and public utilities taxes as being applicable here. Beyond these examples, if you’re interested in knowing more about all of this, take a look at the Ohio Crypto website which will serve as the main informational portal as this new law goes into effect.  

Keep in mind, however that overall, this effort is truly in its early stages. Furthermore, the Ohio Crypto website appears to be unavailable for IP addresses that are located outside of the United States.

By: BGN Editorial Staff