Bitcoin Acceptance

First Canadian Municipality Starts Accepting Bitcoin For Property Taxes

Emilio Janus | Mar 29, 2019 | 08:00

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The town of Innisfil, Ontario will be the first municipality in Canada to accept bitcoin in payment for property taxes. The pilot scheme will be in partnership with Toronto-based Coinberry, who simultaneously announced a new easy-to-use cryptocurrency payment solution.

‘Tax Payments in BTC’ Trend Reaches Canada

Accepting bitcoin for payment of taxes is becoming a thing south of Canada’s border. After a mad scramble a year ago to be America’s crypto-tax pioneer, a Florida county eventually won through to become the first US locality to accept tax payments in bitcoin.

By the end of 2018, Ohio had ‘planted their flag‘ for Bitcoin-adoption, with state-wide acceptance of BTC business-tax payments. Last month it looked like New Hampshire would be next to see the trend continue Northwards. However, with this announcement, Innisfil has leapfrogged New Hampshire for a further hop north into Canada.

Innisfil Mayor, Lynn Dolan, expressed her excitement at the development:

…we are proud to be first in taking this bold step by offering this new, exciting payment option to our residents. There’s no doubt that cryptocurrency is growing in usage and popularity. By getting into this now, we are making sure our municipality is ahead of the game, and signalling to the world that we truly are a future-ready and innovative community.

The Logistics Of The Scheme

From April, just in time for residents to pay their second property tax instalment, they will see a new option on the town website. This will initially offer the option of paying in BTC, but may expand to include other cryptocurrencies in the future.

Residents will pay taxes into the Town of Innisfil’s wallet using the Coinberry Pay service. Coinberry will process the funds and instantly convert them into Canadian dollars, and transfer them to the town’s treasury. This gives the benefit of a cryptocurrency option, without leaving the town exposed to price fluctuations.

Coinberry CEO and Co-founder, Andrei Poliakov added:

Leaders from all levels of government who are first to recognize the benefits of the ‘new money economy’ will be the first to reap the rewards. We are extremely pleased at achieving a milestone in the history of adoption of cryptocurrency in Canada.

From The North And South To The East And West

So with the eastern part of North America covered, will we start to see some lateral movement? Certainly it can’t be too long before blockchain-friendly Wyoming joins the party, giving the movement a decent kick to the west. For perhaps the most progressive state in the US, it seems strange that crypto-payments aren’t already a thing there.

And we could even see a hop eastwards all the way across the Atlantic if UK member of parliament, Eddie Hughes has his way. The Walsall North Labour MP, has called for a UK local authority to ‘plant its own flag’, and start accepting bitcoin payments for taxes.

Should more municipalities accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments? Share your thoughts below!

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