In 2023, the Rio de Janeiro administration will amend the legislation to allow paying property tax with bitcoin. This was announced by Chicão Bulhões, head of the city’s Department of Economic Development and Innovation.
Work from anywhere = Rio! Welcome @binance… Rio on blockchain! @eduardopaes https://t.co/NJEArEvEXV
— Chicão (@ChicaoBulhoes) March 26, 2022
According to the administration’s press release, to convert cryptocurrency into Brazilian real they will hire a specialised company. Thus the city hall will not hold digital assets on its balance sheet.
“We intend to stimulate the use of cryptocurrencies by integrating them into tax payments, as with the city property tax. In the future, the practice could be extended to other services such as taxi payments,” said the administration’s spokesperson Pedro Paulo.
It is not known which company will act as intermediary. However, earlier Binance chief Changpeng Zhao said he had met with Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes. On March 26 he also announced the opening of a Bitcoin exchange office in the city.
9 days ago, I made a handshake deal with mayor @eduardopaes. Rio De Janeiro will accept crypto for tax payments, and @Binance will open an office in Rio. He’s done his part. We are working on ours. https://t.co/HPJONtBfQ8
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) March 26, 2022
According to Portal do Bitcoin, at the Criptoatividade Carioca event where the initial statement was made, executives from the Mercado Bitcoin exchange and the InspireIP platform were also in attendance.
The city administration also announced the creation of a Municipal Committee on Crypto Investments. The committee will assess risks and the returns on potential investments in the digital assets ecosystem.
Additionally, officials plan public hearings on the development of the NFT sector. For example, the city hall proposed issuing non-fungible tokens featuring images of city landmarks.
In January 2022, Eduardo Paes announced that the Rio de Janeiro administration planned to convert 1% of the city’s funds into digital assets.
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