The latest Bitcoin news show that an Ohio Treasurer named Robert Sprague announced a suspension of the OhioCrypto.com website which allowed businesses to pay taxes with Bitcoin (BTC). Now that Ohio state suspends the BTC tax paying system, things are moving slowly in the crypto market.
Everything came from an October 2 press release where the Ohio state and Treasurer Sprague announced that based on internal review, approval by the Board of Deposit was required before Ohio launched the website which allowed businesses to pay taxes with cryptocurrencies.
The crypto news also show that the State Board of Deposit has asked the Attorney General Dave Yost to further research the legalities of how the crypto portal was set up and whether BitPay (which is the third party processor that powered the service) constituted a “financial transaction device.”
If that was the case, the firm should have been selected under a competitive selection process that is codified in state law. Sprague then said:
“It is vital that Ohio explores innovative, new technologies and processes that continue to drive Ohio into the future. However, we must make sure any new processes that are implemented, such as OhioCrypto.com, are established in accordance with Ohio law.”
The website has been taken down and now redirects users to the Treasurer’s main site. According to Sprague, the Ohio state has a reason for the termination:
“As Ohio Treasurer, it’s my job to provide trusted stewardship and protection of Ohio’s tax dollars, and to follow the laws of this state. Until a formal opinion is issued by the Attorney General, I feel it is prudent to suspend the website.”
Aside from all of this, the latest cryptocurrency news also show that paying taxes with crypto was not that popular in the state and country. Sprague also went with details on this, arguing that in the 10 months since the website was launched – less than 10 businesses have paid their taxes with Bitcoin.
For those of you who don’t know, the Ohio state Bitcoin tax program was launched in November 2018 under the purview of the previous Ohio Treasurer, Josh Mandel, who told reporters that the move was “planting a flag” for the state in terms of national cryptocurrency adoption.
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