The bitcoiner city of Lugano, in Switzerland, authorized the payment of taxes and other fiscal services using bitcoin (BTC) and USD Tether (USDT), thus fulfilling its promise from more than a year ago.
As reported by the city authorities, Lugano now allows inhabitants to pay their tax obligations through the platform of the physical asset broker Bitcoin Suisse.
In addition to taxes, Lugano citizens and businesses can use BTC and USDT to pay any type of invoice issued in the Swiss location, regardless of the nature of the service billed or the total amount.
According to what this company indicates, paying taxes will be as simple as scanning a QR code on the invoice received and then sending BTC or USDT through a digital wallet.
This “marks a modern change in the way people handle city-related expenses,” Bitcoin Suisse details, adding that cryptocurrency payments were previously only allowed for transactions made on the city's online portal.
“Lugano is now extending this possibility to all its bills and is taking a big step by becoming one of the first cities to accept BTC and USDT for all transactions, making payments more flexible and modern for everyone,” says the company that will serve as a channel for the payment of taxes.
Enabling tax payments with BTC is part of Plan B, which is a collaborative program between the Lugano authorities and the USDT issuing company, Tether Limited, to use Bitcoin technology to transform the financial system of that town.
Thus, Bitcoin Suisse says it supports Lugano in its Plan B “by handling the technical part of the integrated payment solution, providing a convenient option to accept payments with BTC and USDT for the collection of taxes and other invoices for municipal services”.
A Promise Kept
Paying taxes with BTC in Lugano is also a promise kept by the authorities of that city and Tether Limited, who since 2022 have been exploring the possibility of allowing the payment of taxes using the decentralized digital asset.
At that time, Lugano and Tether Limited agreed to collaborate to expand BTC and USDT use cases in the city. And they even talked about allowing citizens to pay their tax commitments with BTC “in the near future.” All this, with the aim of establishing a European center for the adoption of Bitcoin in Lugano.
With Lugano, there are already three cities in Switzerland that accept bitcoin as a means of paying taxes. In the town of El Cantón del Zug, since February 2021, the authorities have allowed its inhabitants to pay their taxes with BTC.
Another city is Zermatt, which since January 2020 uses the services of Bitcoin Suisse to allow the payment of taxes using bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
