Florida Governor Ron DeSantis indicated an interest in allowing cryptocurrency to be used to pay taxes in the state on Tuesday. The governor made the remarks during a press conference in Wesley Chapel, where he signed a bill requiring financial literacy education into law. The measure makes personal finance education a mandatory for high school graduation. Governer DeSantis said,
“It was kind of mentioned in some of the comments – cryptocurrency, for example – we are working and I’ve told state agencies, figure out a way that if a business wants to pay tax in cryptocurrency to Florida, we should be willing to accept that. So we’re working through that.”
The governor said he included some funding in his proposed budget to experiment with blockchain technology, but the program was not included in the appropriations for the coming fiscal year.
Nonetheless, DeSantis believes that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, among others, should be accepted as a form of tax payment by the state of Florida. He, on the other hand, rebuffed recent federal proposals to turn the US dollar into a digital money.
Joe Biden’s Executive order to help cryptocurrency on expanding path
In an executive order issued on March 9, President Joe Biden suggested the possibility of doing so. His order underlined the necessity for America to take a step ahead and assess the state of the economy. It requested that the Federal Reserve investigate how the United States may create its own digital currency or digitize the dollar.
The Biden order is centred on “combined market capitalization,” as it is referred as. According to the report, the digital marketplace developed from a $14 billion economy to $3 trillion in “non-state issued digital assets” between November 2016 and November 2021. According to DeSantis’ analysis, such assets are decentralised, meaning they are not controlled by a single organisation, nation, state, or group.
The proposed executive order, according to two of Biden’s advisers, would establish a national plan for handling digital assets and position the United States as a leader in domestic and international innovation. The executive order is focused on addressing the need to improve access to safe and cheap financial services while lowering the cost of cross-border and domestic transfers and payments, as cryptocurrencies continue to grow.
Despite the order’s limited reach and emphasis on investigation rather than immediate action, DeSantis expressed concern about the impact of a federally regulated U.S. cryptocurrency on people.
The Florida governor further clarified that there is a difference between a decentralized digital currency, cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin (BTC), and what some are proposing at the federal level, which is to turn US dollars into digital money. He believes there are numerous dangers associated with that, as it is centrally managed.
According to the order, expanding payment and digital assets to better fulfill US needs and interests will remain a primary priority, but the US must maintain its focus on democratic ideals, as well as other requirements such as rule of law, privacy, and national security.
DeSantis said that he was extremely concerned about the federal government’s authority to determine whether someone could engage in the US market or economy and that allowing financial firms the power to shut individuals off at the federal government’s direction may be harmful. He further stated that it was an endeavor that the state should closely monitor.
However, Biden’s executive order is largely concerned with adjusting to evolving financial practices, including actions involving digital assets that are within the scope of existing domestic rules and regulations, according to the president.