Miami Commissioner looking to allow residents to pay Taxes in Bitcoin

Bitcoin adoption is rising rapidly, with the cryptocurrency being used not just by private corporations, but also by governments in some jurisdictions. A Miami-Dade County commissioner is now looking to establish a task force to study crypto in Miami-Dade County’s public administration, to allow the use of bitcoin in public sectors like tax payment.

According to a report from The Miami New Times, county commissioner Cohen Higgins has introduced a new resolution to Miami-Dade’s Infrastructure, Operations, and Innovations Committee, which looks to set up a 13-member task force to study cryptocurrencies.

The primary goal of this task force would be to study the feasibility of letting residents pay their county taxes in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and litecoin, along with other fees and services. Per the documents acquired by the media outlet, crypto payments have the “potential to enhance convenience and save costs.”

“The item would establish a task force that could delve into the feasibility of using cryptocurrency in Miami-Dade County, to explore any potential benefits and pitfalls that could result from its use. It is important to explore all avenues that can support an expanding tech and startup presence to benefit our economy,” Higgins noted.

The proposal is set to be presented before the Miami-Dade’s committee, if the resolution is passed, it would then require approval from the full county commission.

The resolution also mentions a similar initiative enacted by the Miami city administration earlier this year. It called for a study to determine the feasibility of allowing Miami residents to pay taxes, and for city employees to receive salaries in Bitcoin. This was proposed by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez who has been working to make Miami a crypto hotspot.

Benefits all

According to Florida International University’s business school’s blockchain-focused assistant professor Hemang Subramanian, cryptocurrencies would be an attractive option for Miami residents as a result of its large population coming from different countries. The decentralized nature of crypto would allow foreign investors and residents to bypass exchange fees to change their home currency into the U.S. dollar and vice-versa.

Some nations already allow residents to pay taxes in crypto. As previously reported by The Daily Chain, the Canton of Zug in Switzerland recently started accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum for tax payments.

Contributed by The Daily Chain.