By A small town in Ontario, Canada called Innisfil is set to launch a pilot program which will allow residents to pay their property taxes with cryptocurrencies. The Council of Innisfil has voted for the approval of the initiative as reported by CBC.
The program will be facilitated in partnership with a crypto payment processing project dubbed Coinberry Pay. Coinberry Pay converts crypto assets into Canadian dollars and transfers payments to the town of Innisfil. At the point of launch, payments will be accepted in Bitcoin (BTC), with Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple to be added later.
The mayor of Innisfil, Lynn Dollin cited the fact that the new payment pilot shows that the community is in favour of technological innovation. Back in 2017, the town, which has a population of 36,000 people launched a tax-subsidised ride sharing program known as Innisfil Transit, in partnership with ride-on-demand giant Uber.
Starting in April, Innisfil residents will be able to pay taxes with Bitcoin through a digital wallet operated by Coinberry Pay. The pilot is being launched amid controversy about the risks of digital currencies, as unlike fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies are not backed by governments or central banks, yet.
Innisfil is not the first town to introduce a program of this nature. Over in the USA, the state of Ohio became the first state to allow businesses to pay taxes via Bitcoin. Businesses are eligible to pay 23 different taxes using the crypto-coin via an online gateway which was developed by the state treasury office.
Back in February, over in California, lawmakers in the state introduced a bill which allows cannabis-related businesses to pay fees and taxes via stablecoins.
Lastly, in March, the Canada Revenue Agency, the nation’s tax collection service, was allegedly auditing investors of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The CRA goal was to clarify a myriad of points regarding investors crypto assets, how and whom they purchased assets from and whether they made use of crypto mixing services or tumblers.
It’s definitely a step in the right direction for cryptocurrency adoption in Innisfil, and if successful the pilot could very well lead to neighbouring towns in Ontario making the innovative step too.
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