Ohio Senator Wants Government to Accept Taxes in Crypto

Ohio State Senator Niraj Antani, who represents the state's sixth district, recently introduced a new bill that aims to make it possible to pay taxes with crypto in the state.

The government would have to accept Bitcoin and some unspecified alternative cryptocurrencies.

In his statement, Antani argues that his bill is meant to boost free enterprise and promote innovation.

Ohio became the very first US state to start accepting Bitcoin tax payments back in November 2018. The payment system was powered by the popular cryptocurrency payment processor BitPay, which would convert crypto to US dollars. It was run through the office of former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel.

However, the trailblazing program, which was supposed to serve as the blueprint for other states, was shut down due to vetting issues. The website that allows Ohioans to conduct crypto payments was shut down since there was no permission to operate the program. The Treasurer was not allowed to convert crypto into dollars.

Moreover, the program gained very little traction. In fact, it failed to reach even ten payments.

Even though crypto has gained a lot of popularity since 2018, Antani's bill is still extremely unlikely to pass.

It is worth noting that Colorado started accepting crypto for personal income taxes as well as business conomex taxes back in September 2022. This was Gov. Jared Polis' groundbreaking initiative. Other US states, including Florida, have also toyed with the idea of crypto-denominated taxes. However, such programs are yet to gain significant traction across the country.