Arizona senator introduces bill to make bitcoin legal tender

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By Anushree Dave

State Senator Wendy Rogers has proposed a package of new bills to make bitcoin legal tender and allow state agencies to accept bitcoin

A set of new bills proposed by State Senator Wendy Rogers aim to make bitcoin legal tender in the state of Arizona and allow state agencies to accept bitcoin.

The proposed legislation would allow bitcoin to be recognized as a legal form of currency, which means that any transaction made with US dollars could also be made with bitcoin, allowing individuals and businesses to pay taxes, debts and to make purchases using bitcoin. .

In the legal tender bill, “bitcoin” is defined as “the decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency, in which a record of transactions is kept on the bitcoin blockchain and new monetary units are generated by the computing solution of mathematical problems and which operates independently of a central bank.”

The other bill, regarding state agencies, states that a state agency may enter into “an agreement with a cryptocurrency issuer to provide a method for accepting cryptocurrency as a method of paying fines , civil or other penalties, rent, rates, taxes, fees, charges, revenues, financial obligations and special assessments to pay any amount owed to this agency or state.”

Senator Rogers introduced a similar bill in 2022, which did not pass second reading.

Recently, new legislation introduced by Senators Wendy Rogers, Sonny Borrelli, and Justine Wadsack proposed to let voters decide in 2024 whether virtual currency should be tax-exempt property. Public debts, certain household assets, and all federal, state, county, and municipal property are currently tax-exempt in Arizona.

The document, which defines virtual currency as tokens that are not a representation of the US dollar or a foreign currency, is not the first state related to crypto taxes. In 2018, a bill was proposed that would allow residents to pay their taxes using cryptocurrencies. The bill was ultimately vetoed in May 2018.

More and more states are starting to discuss bitcoin’s potential use case. Recently, lawmakers in Mississippi and Missouri introduced bills that would legally protect citizens’ rights to mine bitcoin. Similarly, in December, a New Hampshire commission also recommended a statewide bitcoin mining energy plan.

Bitcoin price is $22,568.59, down 1.56% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinDesk.

-Anushree Dave

(END) Dow Jones Newswire

01-25-23 1103ET

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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