Miami Working on Allowing Tax Payments in Bitcoin, Promised Mayor Suarez

A few months after hinting that Miami residents could soon be able to pay their taxes with bitcoin, the city’s mayor – Francis Suarez – said the process has begun as his team will issue the request in October.

Separately, Suarez also touched upon the most recent actions undertaken by the Chinese government, adding that the US could take advantage of this “huge mistake.”

Miami Citizens to Pay Taxes in BTC?

Being a BTC and ETH holder for a while, Francis Suarez has become one of the most popular political names in the cryptocurrency community in the past year or so. His significantly more open stance in regards to the industry resulted in holding the largest Bitcoin conference in his city earlier this year.

Appearing on Anthony Pompliano’s Best Business Show, Suarez received a question about his previous comment where he suggested that government and municipal workers can be paid in bitcoin in addition to Miami citizens paying their taxes in BTC.

The mayor said the process has started, but as with everything with such substantial implications, it could go on for a while. Nevertheless, he believes governments should receive proper education about BTC as they should not be hostile to it, which is what his team is trying to accomplish.

“We are now about to issue in October what’s called ‘the request for proposal’ – that’s the way we have to select vendors – and we will have a vendor that will allow us to pay our employees in bitcoin and allow us to accept bitcoin for fees.”

Suarez added that they have a county commissioner currently exploring a way how taxes can also be paid in BTC. As such, he raised hopes that these endeavors should be approved by late October.

“We want to do it with bitcoin because it’s what we know and what we trust. We think it’s the most verifiable and most trustworthy network out there.”

China Made a Huge Mistake

Suarez joined MicroStrategy’s CEO – Michael Saylor – asserting that China has made a “huge mistake” by outsing cryptocurrency miners out of its borders. As previously reported, the world’s most populated nation has gone hard after the industry by banning mining, trading, and everything in between.

He believes the US has the potential to take full advantage of this by attracting more miners. Suarez categorized China’s actions as “giving a gift” to the US.

This will enable the States to provide more jobs, which the country previously lost to China due to “slave labor.”

Miami has been among the several US cities to urge miners to relocate there with cheap nuclear energy.

Featured Image Courtesy of TheHill