New Hampshire Bill Proposes that Bitcoin (BTC) is Legalized for Payment of State Taxes

Two U.S. lawmakers, Dennis Acton and Michael Yakubovich, proposed a new bill this month that would allow New Hampshire residents to pay fees and taxes with Bitcoin (BTC) by 2020, according to documents originally published on January 3, 2019.

The bill, titled House Bill 470, would require New Hampshire’s state agencies to accept cryptocurrencies for fees and taxes through a third-party entity. If passed, the New Hampshire state treasurer would have until November 1, 2019 to develop a plan enabling state agencies to accept cryptocurrencies.

Currently, New Hampshire regulations state that fees and taxes can only be paid in U.S. dollars and no other currency. The new bill enabling cryptocurrencies as a form payment does not specify which cryptos will be accepted, but it’s safe to assume Bitcoin (BTC) will be their first choice as it is the most well-known to date.

If the bill is passed and state agencies must accept crypto, they will still need to use a third-party service that converts crypto to U.S. dollars without the state incurring any fees.

As stated in the text of the bill:

Tax payments received by the state would need to be converted to U.S. dollars or alternatively, mitigate such risk by continually monitoring cryptocurrency levels held by the state to ensure there is as much demand for state payments to vendors and payees as the state has in its ‘inventory’.

Is the U.S. Government Warming Up to Crypto?

It seems the U.S. government is beginning to warm up to cryptocurrencies as new bills and regulations regarding the crypto industry are constantly being brought forward.

As previously reported by IIB, Ohio became the first U.S. state to accept cryptocurrency for paying taxes, allowing residents to pay 23 kinds of business taxes such as sales tax, utility tax, employee withholding taxes and more.

Just like how New Hampshire will need to go through a third-party entity for accepting crypto, the state of Ohio partnered with Bitpay, the world’s most popular crypto payments services provider, to accept and convert Bitcoin (BTC) payments to U.S. dollars for taxes.

Furthermore, the state of Wyoming has also proposed a recent bill called House Bill 185 that would allow corporations to issue blockchain-based tokens to represent stocks.

In addition to this bill, the state also introduced other bills including House Bill 62 and House Bill 57 that take a progressive approach to cryptocurrencies and the industry as a whole.

Overall, we are starting to see governments address cryptocurrencies in a more serious light, and we can expect to see a number of new regulatory developments as we move through 2019.

Which U.S. state or other countries will be next to accept cryptocurrencies for paying taxes? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.