Arizona’s cryptocurrency tax payments bill was passed by the state’s House of Representatives, but with a caveat: it is now almost completely different.
Public records show that the Arizona House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1091 on April 30 by a 43-14 vote. That comfortable passage aside, the measure is now starkly different from the one originally submitted – and later passed – in the Arizona Senate.
Now, the two chambers enter talks to reconcile the differences, with lawmakers from the House and the Senate being named to undertake the task.
By far the biggest change is that the mandate aimed at Arizona’s Department of Revenue – which would have cleared the way for it to accept cryptocurrency as payment for tax liabilities – has been walked back.
If implemented as-is, the House version would merely require the Department to study the issue and that it “may develop, adopt and use a payment system that enables the immediate remittance and collection of tax in real time at the point of sale, including payments of additional amounts after audit.”
As the bill explains further:
“The Department shall study whether a taxpayer may pay the taxpayer’s income tax liability by using a payment gateway, such as bitcoin, litecoin or any other cryptocurrency that uses electronic peer-to-peer systems. The Department shall study the conversion of cryptocurrency payments to United States dollars at the prevailing rate after receipt and shall study the process of crediting the taxpayer’s account with the converted dollar amount actually received less any fees or costs incurred by the Department for conversion.”
The bill does not define when this study would begin or how long it might take for the results to be compiled into a report. It is further unclear whether Arizona would allow its tax officials to collect payments using cryptocurrencies at a later date.
Senator Warren Petersen’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bitcoin and money image via Shutterstock