Coinberry negotiates with Richmond Hill for crypto tax payments

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As digital currencies gain more popularity and adoption, more local governments are finding ways to accommodate them. Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has begun negotiations with Coinberry to begin accepting crypto for the payment of property taxes, a July 15 press release reveals.

This comes after the town’s council voted on July 10 to pursue cryptocurrency as a tax payment option. “We believe that the demand for a digital currency payment option is only going to grow in the coming years, especially amongst millennials,” said Deputy Mayor Joe Di Paola. “Our Council was aware of Coinberry’s successful implementation of a digital currency payment service with the Town of Innisfil, and since there was no cost and no risk to the City of Richmond Hill to do the same, it made the decision that much easier for us.”

That Innisfil payment service was announced in March, and allows the smaller town’s 36,500 population to pay their municipal taxes with SegWitCoin (BTC), with Ether, Litecoin and Ripple options planned for the future.

Richmond Hill’s narrower allowance to pay for property taxes in crypto could be attributed to its much larger population. Last measured at 208,370 in 2017 and located in a much more affluent part of the province, it’s more likely Richmond Hill will have a higher population attempting to pay in crypto, so this is likely to be a bit of a pilot project for the town. If it goes well, the town council will consider adding other tax payment options in September.

Coinberry is understandably pumped for being considered for their second municipal partnership in less than a year. “We are very happy to be entering into a partnership with our second Canadian Municipality,” said Coinberry CEO and co-founder Andrei Poliakov. “Leaders of government and enterprise organizations are realizing that, with the right partners, they can innovate with blockchain and digital currencies. We’re pleased to be working on additional innovative solutions with leading enterprise and municipal partners, and have a number of very exciting initiatives we will be announcing over the next several months.”

The deal isn’t done yet, as the negotiations still must be completed before residents can begin using their crypto for tax purposes. Once done, we’ll likely know more about which currencies they can use and if the deal goes any further than originally announced.