Starting this week, Ohio businesses will be able to pay their taxes with Bitcoin.
Ohio will become the first state to do so—others, including Arizona, Georgia, and Illinois have considered legislation that would similarly allow businesses to use Bitcoin for their taxes, but these efforts have thus far stalled in the state legislature.
The program in Ohio will eventually be available to individual filers as well, but in the short term is only for businesses. Companies that want to use the program must register at OhioCrypto.com and will then be able to pay for any taxes they owe using the cryptocurrency. According to The Wall Street Journal, this includes everything from cigarette sales taxes to employee withholding taxes.
The state’s treasurer Josh Mandel told the Journal he hopes the program will make filing taxes easier for businesses while putting Ohio at the forefront of Bitcoin adoption.
These Bitcoin payments will processed by an Atlanta-based company called BitPay, which will convert the currency into dollars and transfer the funds to the state treasurer’s office. While Bitcoin will still not be viewed as a legal form of currency, WSJ reports that the move will give the currency “tacit approval.”
But with the price of Bitcoin plummeting, it’s unclear if Ohio’s initiative will get widespread use.