In what is a first of the country, Ohio will now allow businesses to pay for their taxes via bitcoin, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Those interested companies have the opportunity to utilize OhioCrypto.com starting this week, where they can register "to pay everything from cigarette sales taxes to employee withholding taxes with bitcoin," the WSJ report states.
Individual filers will have the opportunity to do the same in the future.
It works like this: Businesses' taxes, once paid, will go to Atlanta-based BitPay, a payments processor. It then takes the bitcoins, converts them into dollars and then returns it to the state treasurer's office.
What the process doesn't give in legal status it does provide in credibility, the report adds.
The move “does help send a message that bitcoin’s a technology that can be used by anybody — by bad guys but also by the government,” Washington, D.C.-based Coin Center director Jerry Brito told the WSJ.
Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, who is credited with inspiring the state to accept bitcoin for business taxes, agreed.
“I do see [bitcoin] as a legitimate form of currency,” he said, adding that the move was “planting a flag” for Ohio in the bitcoin innovation space.
And while Ohio is the first state to take the plunge, it wasn't the only one to at least consider it. The report adds that Georgia, Illinois and Arizona all considered similar moves, but "bills addressing the issue have stalled in their state legislatures."
