Second Canadian town set to accept tax payments in Bitcoin

It looks like another town in Canada might let its residents pay municipality taxes in cryptocurrency.

The local council of Richmond Hill voted on July 10, 2019 to enter into an agreement with a cryptocurrency payment services provider to let residents of Richmond Hill pay property taxes in Bitcoin, Financial Post reports.

Cryptocurrency payment platform Coinberry is said to be working with the municipality to provide the tech – this marks the firm’s second partnership with a local council.

Earlier this year, Coinberry partnered with the municipality of another Canadian town, Innisfil in Ontario.

“We believe that the demand for a digital currency payment option is only going to grow in the coming years, especially amongst millennials”, said Richmond Hill Deputy Mayor Joe Di Paola in the report.

“Our Council was aware of Coinberry’s successful implementation of a digital currency payment service with the Town of Innisfil, and since there was no cost and no risk to the City of Richmond Hill to do the same, it made the decision that much easier for us.”

At present, the local council is examining the feasibility of the technology required for bringing the Bitcoin tax payments to life. It’ll take a few more months for anything to materialize, though. Municipality staff are to report back at the end of September.

At that point, we’ll know more about how and when Coinberry’s tech will be implemented – assuming it goes ahead.

There’s no real problem paying taxes in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for that matter. But imagine paying a property tax using a Bitcoin address that you forgot to change. Imagine also that you used that address to pay for some naughty stuff off the dark web. Hey presto, you’ve doxed yourself.

It will be interesting to see how many people take Richmond Hill up on this new payment option. Particularly when companies like Microsoft and Steam have lost interest in supporting Bitcoin as a payment option due to poor uptake.