Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has pitched a plan that will allow businesses in the state to pay taxes in cryptoсurrency.
In his speech in Tallahassee on Thursday, DeSantis said a number of crypto-related proposals were included in the state budget for 2022. Among them is the budgeting of $200,000 to his state’s financial services department to enable it to accept taxes from Florida-based firms in cryptocurrency.
“Our view as the state government is this is something that we welcome and we want to make sure that the state government is crypto-friendly,” DeSantis said, as cited by Bloomberg.
The governor also plans to launch pilot programs regarding potential use of blockchain technology in Medicaid payments and in vehicle registration, proposing to allocate $500,000 for this endeavor.
DeSantis noted that Florida has become increasingly popular with crypto enthusiasts and investors, as officials and businesses have been eager to support the blockchain industry. Miami hosted an important bitcoin convention earlier this year and crypto-trading platform Blockchain.com in June moved its headquarters there from New York.
Also, the Miami Heat basketball stadium was recently renamed to FTX Arena after a namesake crypto exchange, while Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a long-time crypto advocate, took his November paycheck in bitcoin.
“Florida encourages cryptocurrency as a means of commerce and furthering Florida’s attractiveness to businesses and economic growth,” DeSantis wrote in the budget proposal.
Florida is not the first US state to consider endorsing cryptocurrencies. Legislators in the state of Wyoming have been mulling using blockchain to increase transparency in the way public funds are spent. Also, back in 2018, Ohio became the first US state to allow taxes on digital assets; however, authorities had to scrap that program a year later due to concerns that it was substandard. Most recently, New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams took his paycheck in bitcoin.
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