A new bill presented to the Arizona Senate if approved will now allow people to pay their tax liabilities with bitcoin or other digital currencies. The goal of this bill is to let residents pay state revenue taxes in virtual currencies has cleared another legislative obstacle.
The state Senate approved the bill last month and has now been unanimously approved by the ways and means committee of House of Representatives.
Under this new bill, the state would be accepting cryptocurrencies as means payment from 2020. The amount will then be converted into dollars in 24 hours to help do away with concerns about the volatility price.
According to the public records, the bill was sponsored by the state Senator Warren Petersen together with three other lawmakers as co-sponsors. It was submitted for deliberation on January 9. Since then it has been referred to the Arizona Senate Rules Committee for further discussion.
Going by the text, this measure would allow for payment gateways like bitcoin or another virtual through peer-to-peer systems to pay for tax as well as any other related interest and penalties the residents owe to the state government.
The bill states:
“The Department [of Revenue] shall convert cryptocurrency payments to United States dollars at the prevailing rate within twenty-four hours after receipt and shall credit the taxpayer’s account with the converted dollar amount.”
Regardless of whether the measure will gain traction in the Arizona legislature is left to be seen. Same efforts were taken in the New Hampshire in 2016, but concerns have been expressed some state lawmakers primarily concerning the volatile price of bitcoin that in the end led to the bill being scuttled.
In contrast, the Arizona lawmakers have sponsored a motion to approve the bills related to tech in the past. Around last spring, the legislature settled on a bill that recognized blockchain signatures as well as smart contracts as valid under the state law. Governor Doug Ducey signed the bill into law in March 2017.
