Arizona — Last year, the state of Arizona went after the federal government's attack on gold and silver by eliminating the capital gains taxes on precious metals. This paved the way to deal a massive blow to the Federal Reserve and end their monopoly on money. While the precious metals move was certainly noteworthy, the legislation passed this month by the Arizona Senate is nothing short of revolutionary as it officially recognizes cryptocurrencies as money by allowing residents to pay their taxes in it.
Arizona Senate Bill 1091, titled Income tax payments; bitcoin, was introduced to the Senate on January 10 and after going through several committees, on Feb. 8, 2018, it passed. It will now make its way to the House.
According to the bill's text, it specifically names bitcoin and litecoin, as well as "any other cryptocurrency" recognized by the department as official forms of payment.
A TAXPAYER MAY PAY THEIR INCOME TAX LIABILITY USING A PAYMENT GATEWAY, SUCH AS BITCOIN, LITECOIN OR ANY OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCY RECOGNIZED BY THE DEPARTMENT, USING ELECTRONIC PEER-TO-PEER SYSTEMS.After the state accepts the cryptocurrency, it will then convert them to US dollars, according to the legislation.
THE DEPARTMENT SHALL CONVERT CRYPTOCURRENCY PAYMENTS TO UNITED STATES DOLLARS AT THE PREVAILING RATE AFTER RECEIPT AND SHALL CREDIT THE TAXPAYER'S ACCOUNT WITH THE CONVERTED DOLLAR AMOUNT ACTUALLY RECEIVED LESS ANY FEES OR COSTS INCURRED BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR CONVERSION.The bill now moves on to Arizona's House of Representatives.
If the bill passes in the house, it will become adopted and Arizona would become the first state in the U.S. to accept cryptocurrency tax payments beginning from and after December 31, 2019, as stated in the bill's text.
Referring to the tax bill, Arizona State Republican Rep. Jeff Weninger, told Fox News:
"It's one of a litany of bills that we're running that is sending a signal to everyone in the United States, and possibly throughout the world, that Arizona is going to be the place to be for blockchain and digital currency technology in the future."
“The ease of use, being able to do it in the middle of the night, being able to do it at home while you’re watching TV,” Rep. Weninger said. “I think in a few years this isn’t even going to be a question.”
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Jack Bitlis, who owns Tag Employer Services also spoke to FOX News, noting that the blockchain and cryptocurrencies are the future. Bitlis stands by his word too as his payroll company allows employees to receive their paychecks through bitcoin and to invest part of their 401(k) into bitcoin.
“We’re living in just a hugely interesting time and, really, we just want to be a part of it,” Biltis said. “We just know that we could be, as Arizona’s chosen to be, at the forefront of this time and encourage these new technologies. That’s just an exciting place to be.”
Naturally, there are some less than optimistic lawmakers in Arizona who are applying Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) on the legislation, saying bitcoin could crash.
“If we had a bill that allowed people to pay their taxes in bitcoin directly, that puts the volatility burden on all other taxpayers because it would mean that that money goes to the state and then the state has to take the responsibility of how to exchange it,” Arizona State Senate Minority Leader Steve Farley said.
Speaking like a true shill of the Federal Reserve, and ignoring the fuvolatilityility of the US dollar, Farley followed up his FUD by saying, "these are American dollars. They're good enough for me. They should be good enough for anybody else who pays taxes in this country."
Countering Farley's negativity and unfounded fear, however, Biltis noted, “It’s always a little scary and thrilling at the beginning, it was with anything (including) the Internet...The world is going to look so different in 20 years and the people that are going to be truly successful are the people that embrace it now and are on the leading edge of that curve.”
As for now, we are crossing our fingers that this bill passes the house and paves the way for a crypto-revolution.
After that, we just need to figure out how to stop the state from taking our tax dollars in the first place.