California senator filed a bill to allow payment of state services with Bitcoin

[nullama]

Senator Sydney Kamlager from California has recently filed bill 1275, which states:

A state agency may accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment for the provision of government services.

It seems that there is a momentum building in the US, after Colorado started moving into this path earlier this year.

[lombok]

Senator Sydney Kamlager from California has recently filed bill 1275, which states:

A state agency may accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment for the provision of government services.

It seems that there is a momentum building in the US, after Colorado started moving into this path earlier this year.

Amazing.. Many countries have opened and accepted cryptocurrency. In fact, crypto is not a threat but a new technology. Referring to the related statement, there are still no details regarding what crypto will be used and when it will be valid in the country. But positively cryptocurrencies have at least been glimpsed and will be enforced as a legal payment method later there.

[DaveF]

Makes me wonder if / when it goes live how they will do it.
Process it themselves or through a 3rd party. If they do a 3rd party will they charge a fee like many state agencies do when taking credit cards.
I doubt they will hold any as BTC, since for the most part states don't hold anything but cash.

-Dave

[yazher]

Amazing.. Many countries have opened and accepted cryptocurrency. In fact, crypto is not a threat but a new technology. Referring to the related statement, there are still no details regarding what crypto will be used and when it will be valid in the country. But positively cryptocurrencies have at least been glimpsed and will be enforced as a legal payment method later there.

They are now realizing the good thing it can do and to get some taxes from potential investors, they allowed it and give them the freedom to operate in their country. This is how it should be for the others that have gone hostile to bitcoins, all they need to do is stay neutral and let every exchange or other platform and stores accept BTC as payment. With this, all they gonna do is accept some taxes from their transactions when they want to convert it to fiat. All will be happy, but other countries choose to remain hostile.

[aruldaroy]

It is extraordinary and this indicates that bitcoin is getting ahead and is increasingly being recognized by many countries.
But every decision they make whether the government allows it because bitcoin is a digital currency and every country certainly has their currency that is legal and recognized by the government.
So I don't think it's easy for them to legally enforce payments with bitcoin, of course the government feels competitive with their currency.

[crwth]

I'm happy to see people supporting BTC in a position to influence the masses. Having a government position and saying that they support Bitcoin is something else. They want to be transparent as possible towards what they will do with the funds or something. It's essential for a person to be that transparent to gain the people's trust. I think that's way better than just saying what they think or something.

It can be beneficial for the government to have that as well, implementing BTC as currency.

[Darker45]

It is amusing how the influence of Bitcoin is slowly creeping into both the legislation and executive branches of a number of places in the US. Whether or not these bills will actually be approved and translated into a law later on is probably not the main point. The point is that Bitcoin has reached doors, knocked on them, and entered the halls. Whether they will be welcomed or not does not matter. After all, these are just the earliest attempts.

This is the same thing I thought about spot ETF applications in the SEC. Rejection may follow after rejection. Regardless, time will come an attempt will finally be successful. It's just a matter of when.

[franky1]

in many states.. they can only claim tax once someone has converted an asset/income into a native legal tender.
where its then declared as a income/gain.

but things like this, by accepting another currency for services. is like saying "we accept euro" so now if you get income in euro we can tax that euro income too now, without having to wait for you to convert it to dollar to then declare it

[nullama]

in many states.. they can only claim tax once someone has converted an asset/income into a native legal tender.
where its then declared as a income/gain.

but things like this, by accepting another currency for services. is like saying "we accept euro" so now if you get income in euro we can tax that euro income too now, without having to wait for you to convert it to dollar to then declare it

This is actually a good point.

It's not legal tender in the US, so the moment you pay your tax with Bitcoin it means you are taxed on that transaction for the capital gains you obtained. Crazy.

[Poker Player]

in many states.. they can only claim tax once someone has converted an asset/income into a native legal tender.
where its then declared as a income/gain.

but things like this, by accepting another currency for services. is like saying "we accept euro" so now if you get income in euro we can tax that euro income too now, without having to wait for you to convert it to dollar to then declare it

I don't know what it will look like specifically in each state, but I would say they are two different things. When you receive a monetary remuneration for your work, the normal scenario is that you are taxed on the income, whether you are paid in legal tender in the country, in cryptocurrency or in gold nuggets. If someone pays you $60K a year in gold nuggets for doing work for them, is the IRS not going to tax your income? And then another thing is when you spend it, or when you pay taxes as in this case. If at the time of paying taxes on cryptocurrency the price is higher than when you received it as income, you will be taxed on capital gains.

[leea-1334]

Without this bill,,, it was not illegal anyway to do that right? Or do I understand that actually for state services, it was only possible to accept us dollar? Because it does not make sense Coinbase is legal in USA and advertising everywhere including on Wall Street and yet you need to legalize allowing to pay for state services in Bitcoin.

[nullama]

Without this bill,,, it was not illegal anyway to do that right? Or do I understand that actually for state services, it was only possible to accept us dollar? Because it does not make sense Coinbase is legal in USA and advertising everywhere including on Wall Street and yet you need to legalize allowing to pay for state services in Bitcoin.

It was just not possible, you would have to first sell Bitcoin for USD, and then pay the tax with that USD.

This bill basically streamlines that process, as you just send Bitcoin directly.

Think of this as a place that now accepts credit cards, and before only accepted cash.

[Falconer]

I don't know what it will look like specifically in each state, but I would say they are two different things. When you receive a monetary remuneration for your work, the normal scenario is that you are taxed on the income, whether you are paid in legal tender in the country, in cryptocurrency or in gold nuggets. If someone pays you $60K a year in gold nuggets for doing work for them, is the IRS not going to tax your income? And then another thing is when you spend it, or when you pay taxes as in this case. If at the time of paying taxes on cryptocurrency the price is higher than when you received it as income, you will be taxed on capital gains.

If this is the case, it will obviously be very detrimental to bitcoin or cryptocurrency users. Government wants money from users although they also make adoption better but in reality it will only cost users more when prices rise higher than before and capital gains tax is clearly another target of the government.

What doesn't make sense to me is the government just wants more while they don't want to know when users are at a loss and they won't be held responsible for it.

[Bitstar_coin]

It is amusing how the influence of Bitcoin is slowly creeping into both the legislation and executive branches of a number of places in the US. Whether or not these bills will actually be approved and translated into a law later on is probably not the main point. The point is that Bitcoin has reached doors, knocked on them, and entered the halls. Whether they will be welcomed or not does not matter. After all, these are just the earliest attempts.

This is the same thing I thought about spot ETF applications in the SEC. Rejection may follow after rejection. Regardless, time will come an attempt will finally be successful. It's just a matter of when.

"Can't beat them you join them" the struggle for recognition and acceptance of btc over the years is slowly turning into reality, the government has fought so hard to suppress BTC growth and usage but it seems an impossible task.
Btc has had a great impact on all corners of the government and it is just a matter of time before that strong resistance is broken.

[pooya87]

Why is the bill so vague or is the link just a summary? For example what do they define as cryptocurrency, or for example does this mean anyone can pay with a token that they create themselves? What is the exchange rate and where is it received from?

It's not legal tender in the US, so the moment you pay your tax with Bitcoin it means you are taxed on that transaction for the capital gains you obtained. Crazy.

Shouldn't the tax in this case be of income tax type rather than being capital gain tax type if they are accepting "payment" in cryptocurrency?

[CryptoSable]

Lucky California! At least the sanator realizes all the good things Bitcoin can do.
A huge progress for the general adoption of crypto not only in the U.S., but also worldwide.

[rodskee]

Senator Sydney Kamlager from California has recently filed bill 1275, which states:

A state agency may accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment for the provision of government services.

It seems that there is a momentum building in the US, after Colorado started moving into this path earlier this year.

but do i missed something? because the word use in the Bill is "Cryptocurrency" and not Bitcoin so maybe this must be a general word?  that bitcoin is not the only currency they will going to accept?

but indeed that this is a good news to our market here as we are talking about California here .

Lucky California! At least the sanator realizes all the good things Bitcoin can do.
A huge progress for the general adoption of crypto not only in the U.S., but also worldwide.

this is one senator for now mate and we must not act as celebrated , i believe that we need to wait longer here.

[franky1]

If someone pays you $60K a year in gold nuggets for doing work for them, is the IRS not going to tax your income?

if you have no fiat $ in your bank accounts. and no bank has sent a file report of funds exceeding $10k to the IRS
then what can the IRS actually do.

nuggets are outside of their jurisdiction unless you put a $ fiat value on it and you declare it at such value.

do you really think the IRS lives in your house and checks under your pillow every night, looking for gold? no
they prefer to wait to see you convert to fiat so they can see you got $60k income. and then if you dont declare it as taxable income, then they knock on your door

how do you think facebook pays no(very little) american tax.. because its income is stored in euro's in ireland
there are legal means to avoid tax and illegal means to evade tax.

[lombok]

They are now realizing the good thing it can do and to get some taxes from potential investors, they allowed it and give them the freedom to operate in their country. This is how it should be for the others that have gone hostile to bitcoins, all they need to do is stay neutral and let every exchange or other platform and stores accept BTC as payment. With this, all they gonna do is accept some taxes from their transactions when they want to convert it to fiat. All will be happy, but other countries choose to remain hostile.

Accepting it is difficult because there have been bad rumors about crypto especially bitcoin since its emergence. So it's only natural that only a few countries now dare to use Bitcoin.
Speaking of taxes, as quoted from this article "India's decision to impose a 30% tax on profits from cryptocurrency trading turned out to be a boon for the country's digital asset exchange." - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-17/india-s-30-crypto-tax-spurs-bonanza-for-digital-coin-exchanges

30 percent tax too expensive?

[kryptqnick]

Wow, it's a nice suggestion, and I'm happy to see that more cities and states are getting interested in adopting Bitcoin as payment in the US. It brings some important balance because cryptos are viewed as assets there, as something to trade and own (at least, that's how they're treated for tax purposes, right?). The link didn't open for some reason, though, and I wanted to see if there's a list of what is suggested as something for which people can pay in Bitcoin ('state services' sounds a bit vague).