Seminole Tax Collector Begins Accepting Bitcoin as Payment

Megalith

Megalith

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Florida’s Seminole County is reportedly the nation's first government agency to accept cryptocurrency for tax payment: residents may send “bitcoin as payment for new IDs, license plates, and property taxes starting next month.” County tax collector and advocate Joel Greenberg claims it will promote transparency and accuracy in payment, but other officials say that BTC is too volatile to make sense.

Greenberg, a longtime cryptocurrency enthusiast, is bullish on the move and said it will help reduce fraud and identity theft because payments cannot be altered once they’re made. “The technology is so new and so promising,” Greenberg said, noting taxpayers would be subject to a 1 percent fee BitPay collects, lower than fees charged by credit-card companies.
 
noting taxpayers would be subject to a 1 percent fee BitPay collects, lower than fees charged by credit-card companies
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The difference is that the receiver pays the fees in a traditional model, infact, most prevent (via their agreements) charging the payer the fee (hence why cheap gas stations often reverse it and give a "cash discount" or try and force debit, which allows for the fee). This makes it sound like the person paying will be subject to the 1% fee.
 
And if the price goes up the county will make a fortune on tax payments. Think about it if a customer owes 8 grand and the price goes back up to 20,000 the county would get 20,000 for a 8 grand payment.
 
Under terms of the deal, taxpayers would pay BitPay in the currency through the tax collector’s website, then BitPay would compensate Greenberg’s office in cash. BitPay keeps a 1 percent fee.
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Looks like all the risk and reward is with BitPay, the office gets the cash for the bill and the taxpayer pays the current bitcoin rate. If there's a fluctuation then BitPay will be the one that gets to sit on the coins or cash out big.
 
Spidey329 said:
The difference is that the receiver pays the fees in a traditional model, infact, most prevent (via their agreements) charging the payer the fee (hence why cheap gas stations often reverse it and give a "cash discount" or try and force debit, which allows for the fee). This makes it sound like the person paying will be subject to the 1% fee.
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yes and thats solley to encurage people to use there payment service making the customer thing its free. paypal also technically prevents people from charging a extra fee to use paypal but they cant really enforce that,

Wolf_Tech said:
And if the price goes up the county will make a fortune on tax payments. Think about it if a customer owes 8 grand and the price goes back up to 20,000 the county would get 20,000 for a 8 grand payment.
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they dont keep the the crypto (as they shouldnt) they pretty much take the crypto and immediately convert it to fiat, which is just fine as it can still be quicker and cheaper.
 
If you sell any Bitcoin you are a fool. Wait until Amazon.com accepts it. It is coming. #boom
 
In other words someone in government wants to use a highly volatile exchange to make themselves some cash while disregarding the risk. Gambling with taxpayer money seems... illegal.
 
If you look across the planet you can see the adopting of crypto in real time. Venezuela is a good example. The currency gets printed into dust, an exchange opens and people convert to crypto, the dictator ridiculously trys to create a national crypto because no one's buying fake paper anymore. Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Africa, India, how many more countries will follow this path? What's western union's cut to send $ out of the country again? How long does it take? What's that, only criminals use crypto.
 
So does that count as a taxable event to the irs? Do you pay taxes on your tax payment? It is transferring property.....
 
Wolf_Tech said:
And if the price goes up the county will make a fortune on tax payments. Think about it if a customer owes 8 grand and the price goes back up to 20,000 the county would get 20,000 for a 8 grand payment.
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Doubtful, since they simply have made an agreement with a 3rd party. The 3rd party deals with all the transactions and gives the state it's money minus a 1% transaction fee, very similar to BillPay or any other portal that accepts credit cards. That third party would effectively make the money, and stand to lose money.
 
nutzo said:
Fixed that for you...
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um no, if you were in a country with a rapidly failing curency would you rather have 1. a curency backed by a failing goverment that has a high chance of being worthless in the near future or 2. a crypto that can wildly vary in value but will almost certainly have some value. in addition crypto can pretty easily be exchanged for any currency on the planet.
 
cdabc123 said:
in addition crypto can pretty easily be exchanged for any currency on the planet.
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Easy huh?

I don't think you know what that means..

So people in a failed government state with no money, have bank accounts, pc's, internet and coinbase.... For 4 cryptos
 
hlfbkd420 said:
Easy huh?

I don't think you know what that means..

So people in a failed government state with no money, have bank accounts, pc's, internet and coinbase.... For 4 cryptos
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Nothing is terribly easy in a failing contry but there is normally some company jumping through the hoops to exchange anything valuable for crypto. Of course if a peroson has no money they have no need to protect the value of there wealth
 
Do a search for Joel Greenberg. He was in the news last year for arming county tax collectors. Here's a recent video of Mr. Greenberg trying to use his position as tax collector to get out of a ticket:

On video from Rowe’s body camera, Greenberg is seen in the driver’s seat smoking a cigarette.

“You’re going to give a constitutional officer a ticket?” Greenberg is seen saying. “Are you serious? … This is unprofessional. You know this is unprofessional.”
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I can't imagine this honorable gentleman would have any personal reason to abuse his government position to push a bitcoin scam...
 
Read the headline,

Seminole Tax Collector Begins Accepting Bitcoin as Payment

And the first thing that pops into my head is, "Yeah, and you let the Dutch give you whiskey and glass beads for Manhattan, too." But reading the article cleared that up.


P.S. "Butt coin? I can pay you with butt coin? Oh, bitcoin, naaah, I knew what you meant."
 
So now they can bust you for not reporting your bitcoin income to the State of Florida after you use bitcoin to pay tax. Grin. Sneeky.
 
Spidey329 said:
The difference is that the receiver pays the fees in a traditional model, infact, most prevent (via their agreements) charging the payer the fee (hence why cheap gas stations often reverse it and give a "cash discount" or try and force debit, which allows for the fee). This makes it sound like the person paying will be subject to the 1% fee.
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Almost every online tax payment I've seen charged extra for paying by credit card to offset the fees, so I'm not surprised that's the case here as well. It's not uncommon to pay a small fee for an ACH payment either.
 
hlfbkd420 said:
So does that count as a taxable event to the irs? Do you pay taxes on your tax payment? It is transferring property.....
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Yes, you're effectively selling your Bitcoin to satisfy your tax debt, so any gain or loss is taxable according to whatever rules apply.
 
I didn't know Floridian senior citizens were big time crypto miners and have bitcoin lying around. Good to know!
 
cdabc123 said:
um no, if you were in a country with a rapidly failing curency would you rather have 1. a curency backed by a failing goverment that has a high chance of being worthless in the near future or 2. a crypto that can wildly vary in value but will almost certainly have some value. in addition crypto can pretty easily be exchanged for any currency on the planet.
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I was referring to the crypto currency that Venezuela's government has created. It's just as worthless as the paper money.
 
Megalith said:
claims it will promote transparency and accuracy in payment

said it will help reduce fraud and identity theft
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um.. how is the current payment method NOT transparent or accurate??

and reduce fraud and identity theft??

Lots of buzzwords being thrown out there

listening to this guy.. cyrptocurrency will eliminate poverty, homeless and world hunger too

:rolleyes:
 
good for them. They are taking a gamble. If they ride the volatility right, then they can make a bonus 50%

I imagine they would immediately cash out 75%, and let 25% remain as btc.
 
katanaD said:
um.. how is the current payment method NOT transparent or accurate??

and reduce fraud and identity theft??
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With Credit cards and debit cards people can do a charge back and the money gets taken back from the Government account. Probably creates all kinds of headaches where they mark someone as paid, and then have to reverse that. So with a Bitcoin payment they get their money and there is no option for reversal.
 
celeron300 said:
If you sell any Bitcoin you are a fool. Wait until Amazon.com accepts it. It is coming. #boom
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That will be the day.
In Sweden we already have a huge online retailer accepting Bitcoin (Webhallen).
They are not even close to Amazon size, but they are one of the largest here and sell basically everything, just like Amazon.
 
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