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- With New Bitcoin Bill, New Hampshire Joins Ohio and Wyoming in Crypto-Friendly Trend Among US State Lawmakers
With New Bitcoin Bill, New Hampshire Joins Ohio and Wyoming in Crypto-Friendly Trend Among US State Lawmakers
Lawmakers in New Hampshire have introduced a bill to legalize tax payments and state fees in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
State senators Dennis Acton and Michael Yakubovich who introduced House Bill 470 on January 3, held a public hearing about the bill on Wednesday.
Acton, a blockchain project developer, is the founder of Haiti Blockchain Alliance.
The bill is expected to be reviewed by a sub-committee on January 29, with a deadline for a decision set for March 14.
Due to market volatility and crypto price fluctuations, the bill states that cryptocurrencies received for bill payments are to be converted to US dollars using a third-party payment processor. If passed, state agencies would be able to start accepting cryptocurrencies from July 1, 2020.
According to the bill,
“The plan shall address any accounting, valuation and management issues and also identify an appropriate third party payment processor that will process cryptocurrency transactions at no cost to the state. The State Treasurer is required to submit the plan to the Governor, House, and Senate by November 1, 2019.”
“Tax payments received by the state would need to be converted to U.S. dollars or alternatively, mitigate such risk by continually monitoring cryptocurrency levels held by the state to ensure there is as much demand for state payments to vendors and payees as the state has in its ‘inventory’.”
US state bills in support of crypto payments highlight a trend among state lawmakers who see cryptocurrencies as an alternate form of money and as an easy, expedient and cheap way to transfer value digitally without cutting checks or issuing bank wires that carry long settlement times and costly fees.
State lawmakers are defining their own revolutionary look toward the future of money in the absence of clear regulatory guidelines from the US government.
In 2015, lawmakers in New Hampshire first tried to allow Bitcoin for tax payments with the introduction of HB 552.
New Hampshire joins crypto-friendly Ohio which became the first US state to legalize tax payments in crypto.
Pro-crypto lawmakers in Wyoming have also introduced several bills to support cryptocurrencies, including HB0185 which was introduced last week. The bill will allow corporations to issue certificate tokens instead of traditional stock certificates.