Rio de Janeiro, one of the most prominent cities in Brazil, has announced that people would be able to pay taxes using cryptocurrency. It is the first city in the country to do so, realising that the bitcoin business is booming. These initiatives are part of a long-term strategy to see the city invest some of its cash in crypto assets.
Rio de Janeiro will increase the number of tax payment options available:
Officers of the municipality disclosed plans to begin collecting cryptocurrency for a local tax dubbed the IPTU next year at a recent ceremony attended by the city’s mayor, Eduardo Paes. This tax is based on the value of inhabitants’ properties and is collected by the municipality.
Rio de Janeiro has become the first city in Brazil to accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments. According to a press release, the city will have to rely on third-party corporations to handle payments and convert them to fiat money in order to achieve this aim. The city will only accept Brazilian reals in this manner, while users will be able to pay using cryptocurrency.
Mayor Eduardo Paes commented on the new idea, saying: Our goal is to make it apparent that there are governmental initiatives in Rio de Janeiro that acknowledge this sector. Those who invest in Bitcoin and live in Rio will now be allowed to use their assets in the city while paying formal taxes. And we’re going to make a lot of progress.
Future Preparations:
The city’s cryptocurrency integration strategy, however, does not end there. According to Pedro Paulo, Rio’s secretary of Finance and Planning, the city intends to expand the scope of this new payment system to cover more services.
According to Paulo, This might be expanded to other services in the future, such as taxi trips. Further, through NFTs, we will employ these crypto assets to stimulate the arts, culture, and tourism and develop a robust and responsible governance framework to assess the realisation of crypto investments.
To achieve this latter aim, the city of Rio will establish a new body, the Municipal Committee for Crypto Investments, which will investigate the best approach to invest some city funds in cryptocurrencies while remaining compliant with all of the country’s public spending regulations. The city revealed the idea in January, indicating that 1% of the city’s funds will be invested in cryptocurrency at the moment.
