Legislators In New Hampshire Squash Bill To Allow Taxes To Be Paid In Cryptocurrencies

world news   21 Jan, 2020   bex.com   Views: 405

New Hampshire lawmakers have shot down a fresh bill which sought to permit state agencies to start accepting cryptocurrencies as tax payments.

As CoinDesk reports, the effort was initiated by two Representatives Michael Yakubovich as well as Dennis Acton on Jan. 3, 2019. If the bill had gone through it would have mandated the state’s treasurer to come up with a plan that would guide the state on how to accept cryptos as tax payment as well as fees. The state agencies would also have to accept payment for different services and products in cryptos from July 1, 2020.

However, on November 13, the General Court's Executive Departments and Administration Committee killed the bill with 17-1 vote. This move was further confirmed on Jan. 8 by the whole house of lawmakers through a voice vote.

The bill by Acton and Yakubovich who are both Republicans, was found to have a brief language that comprised only of two clauses. As per the content of the bill, it failed to clearly state whether all or part of the taxes would be settled using cryptos and whether only few virtual coins like Ethereum or Bitcoin should be used.

The start of the bill was positive as it was passed unanimously at the subcommittee stage in Feb. 2019. An amendment was also introduced at this stage to ensure that the state had the power to collect taxes if a given transaction did not go through or even delivered to an erroneous address.

A fiscal note that was appended to the bill stated that cryptocurrencies are volatile assets hence the collected revenue is prone to fluctuations.

The shooting down of the current bill marks the second time which the legislators have killed a bill meant to enhance crypto tax payment. In 2015, there was a similar bill which required the state to form a partnership with a Bitcoin-based firm to let the people pay their tax obligations using Bitcoin but was killed in the committee stage. Arizona had also tried to pass such a bill in 2018 but was shot down by legislators.



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