According to a press release dated July 15, 2019, the city of Richmond Hill, Canada, is rolling out a project that allows residents to pay property taxes with bitcoin (BTC) through crypto startup, Coinberry.
Pay Property Tax with Bitcoin
Canadian digital currency platform, Coinberry, has opened negotiations with the city of Richmond Hill to provide crypto payment solutions for the municipality. The City of Richmond Hill is located in the outskirts of Toronto and is home to more than 200,000 residents.
The Council, which took place on July 10, 2019, was willing to innovate with digital currency and has voted in favor of entering into an agreement with Coinberry to provide residents and business the option to pay property taxes in Bitcoin.
The city of Richmond Hill is, therefore, becoming the second Canadian municipality to allow citizens to pay their taxes in cryptocurrency. Indeed, in March, Innisfil, a town in Ontario, allowed residents to pay property tax in bitcoin through the service offered by Coinberry. Innisfil has 36,000 residents and was used as a pilot project to test whether the community was ready to embrace innovative digital cryptocurrency payments.
Coinberry is a Toronto-based, FINTRAC-registered, financial technology solutions provider focused on blockchain and digital currency solutions. It is the first and only Canadian cryptocurrency platform to have secured partnerships with local municipalities, making it one of the leading companies in Canada.
A similar project was launched in the American state of Ohio back in 2018. That initiative allowed businesses to pay their taxes directly in BTC. The crypto-friendly move in Ohio has largely been attributed to the state’s treasurer, Josh Mandel.
According to the WSJ reports, Mandel is looking to “plant a flag” for Ohio as a leader in cryptocurrency adoption. He stated that he “sees [bitcoin] as a legitimate form of currency.” Following the launch, on January 4, 2019, online retail giant Overstock announced that it would pay a part of its Ohio state business tax in bitcoin.
Governments and local municipalities are increasing their awareness of cryptocurrencies and projects like these may trigger other councils to consider the roll-out of crypto payments as a settlement method in the future.
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