Paying Taxes With Cryptocurrency?

[Lee B]

"Revenue departments in Colorado and Utah are implementing programs to enable businesses and individuals to pay their tax bills with virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, targeting implementation within a few months. The two Western states look to be outliers, however, and still face some logistical hurdles before their programs launch."

This would make scheduling estimated tax payments an interesting challenge,

since the value of cryptocurrency changes every day

[Gail in Virginia]

Considering that most taxing authorities, if not all, won't even accept credit cards unless you go through a service that allows them to have the fee taken from the payer rather than the payee, I don't understand why they are accepting the risk of the market fluctuation on virtual currency. 

[Sara EA]

The prices of crypto change not every day but every nanosecond.  So I pay my $1k tax bill in bitcoin, and by the time the transaction clears it's worth $850, or $1100.  The exchanges charge higher fees than credit card companies too.  If any of my clients ask to pay in crypto, I will politely tell them to go to the state tax website and figure it out themselves.  These schemes must have been cooked up when the prices of crypto were soaring.  Now that they've tanked big time, maybe these states will reconsider.

[Pacun]

If I am not mistaken, it clears the nanosecond you click submit. That's the beauty of "the new banking system". 

[Sara EA]

I guess it depends on the platform.  Bitcoin takes something like ten minutes, maybe less, but sometimes much longer.  Remember the viral story about the man who ordered a $20 pizza and by the time the transaction cleared it cost something like $26?  The newer crypto staking platforms are supposedly quicker.  Bitcoin is still using proof of work.