US State Wants to Lead Cryptocurrency Acceptance: Colorado Will Accept Cryptocurrency for Tax Payments This Summer

The US state of Colorado is preparing to accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments, Governor Jared Polis said. “We hope to accept crypto this summer,” he said, adding that after taxes are paid, crypto will be accepted for other things, like driver’s licenses or hunting permits.

Colorado will accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments

Colorado Governor Jared Polis discussed his state’s efforts to become the leader in cryptocurrency acceptance in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.

Regarding his state accepting cryptocurrency for tax payments, he said: “We are waiting until this summer, very soon, to accept cryptocurrency for all of our state tax-related purposes, and then we plan to roll this out to all state governments. like… driver’s license or hunting license, within a few months after that.” He reiterated:

The largest set of transactions are the taxes that people pay. We hope to accept crypto this summer.

However, the governor clarified: “It is important for people to know from a state perspective that we cannot be in the business of having exposure to a market where securities, including cryptocurrencies, fluctuate. Our expenses are in dollars… All our expenses are in dollars. Our budgets are approved by legislators in dollars.”

He emphasized: “When we talk about accepting cryptocurrencies for payments, they will be converted back into dollars for our purpose, so there will be a middleman there who will convert them back into dollars for our purposes.”

The governor was also asked if he is concerned about the volatility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and if it affects the state’s plan.

“No way,” the governor quickly replied.

“In our case, we wouldn’t keep it like bitcoin, like ethereum. We would not consider it as an asset class. It would be paid and converted in real time to the way we do our bookkeeping, though,” he continued, reiterating:

Our budget is approved and our expenses are incurred in dollars. In fact, it would become the moment you pay…just like accepting a credit card, but at a much lower transaction cost than a credit card.