New Hampshire legislators have rejected a bill that asked for the state’s treasurer to “develop an implementation plan for the state to accept bitcoin as payment for taxes and fees beginning July 1, 2017”.
The New Hampshire House Bill 552 ( HB 552 ) was introduced in 2015 by Eric Schleien, a Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Bitcoin As Payment For Taxes
The action plan of the Bill was as follows: “The state treasurer, in consultation with the commissioner of the department of revenue administration and the commissioner of the department of administrative services, shall develop an implementation plan for the state to accept bitcoinCT r: 8 as payment for taxes and fees beginning July 1, 2017. The plan shall address any accounting, valuation, and management issues relative to the acceptance of bitcoin and shall identify an appropriate third party payment processor that will process bitcoin transactions at no cost to the state. On or before January 1, 2017, the state treasurer shall submit the plan to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, the senate president, the house clerk, the senate clerk, and the state library.” However, the bill failed to pass in January 2016, only taking 74 yes votes to 264 no votes. On his reasoning behind rejecting the bill, the State Treasury issued a statement: “This bill will likely increase state expenditures because the Department has no familiarity with bitcoin cash operations and therefore cannot determine in advance how much time and effort will be required to become informed and address the areas of accounting, valuation, and management.” Schleien has countered the argument of the Treasury, explaining that if they were to use a third-party payment processor like BitPay , there would be “no cost” and “no risk” to the state.
However, […]
