Ohio Accepts Digital Currency for Taxes

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Businesses operating in Ohio are now able to pay their state business taxes with cryptocurrency via OhioCrypto.com. Ohio launched its crypto tax payment portal on November 26, making it the first state in the nation to do so. There are 23 different types of Ohio taxes that are eligible for payment via OhioCrypto.com. This is part of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel’s plan to “make Ohio a national leader in blockchain technology.”

At no point does the Treasurer’s office hold cryptocurrency. Payments that are made on OhioCrypto.com go through a third-party cryptocurrency payment processor, BitPay in Atlanta, that immediately converts the payment into US dollars before depositing it into a state account. Recognizing the volatility of cryptocurrency, BitPay sets the exchange rate for a 15-minute allotted time window for each transaction once the business taxpayer begins to make its payment through the portal. The business taxpayer will pay a transaction processing fee, network fee and miner fee. The processing and network fees are nonrefundable fees assessed by BitPay. In the initial three-month introductory period, there is no transaction fee, but after that period it will be 1 percent. The network fee is the cost incurred for the transaction to be validated on the blockchain network, which does not include the miner fee. The miner fee will be shown in the taxpayer’s wallet, as the state does not have control over it. More information about the program can be found on https://ohiocrypto.com.