Argentina capital Buenos Aires to allow tax payments in crypto
The city's mayor says that these payments will be converted to fiat currency by the crypto firms participating in the venture.
The local government in Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, has announced that they will start accepting tax payments in cryptocurrency. This is the latest in a series of pro-blockchain policies announced by South American cities.
Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta announced that this policy will not change the fact that the government does not hold crypto in its accounts, but rather that his team will work with crypto firms and exchanges to build an interface layer to provide another option for taxpayers.
“The city is not going to have crypto in public accounts, but through an agreement with virtual wallets, we are going to add one more payment option to the ones we already have, with the idea of making things easier,” said Rodríguez Larreta
The crypto exchanges that have been approved for this new policy include local firms SatoshiTango, Buenbit, Ripio and Belo, as well as Mexico-based Bitso. Payments made in crypto will be converted to the local fiat currency, the Argentinian Peso, before being deposited in government coffers.
Earlier this year, Rodriguez Larreta's government had released a white paper proposing a blockchain-based digital identity. According to CoinDesk, it is expected to be operational between the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.
A few weeks ago, Brazil's Rio De Janeiro announced that they will be accepting municipal tax payments in cryptocurrency from 2023 onwards.
Edited by Anju Narayanan
