California’s Cannabis Tax Man May Accept Cryptocurrency

The California assembly introduced a bill that would allow cannabis businesses to pay sales and excise taxes with cryptocurrency. The bill, AB-953, would allow a local municipality or county to accept cryptocurrency as payment for sales and excise taxes. The bill also requires the state to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method for California state taxes by June 1, 2020. California local and state governments may either set up a digital wallet for direct payment or utilize a third party payment processor that will accept cryptocurrency and immediately convert into US dollars. The bill addresses the inefficiencies created by the lack of electronic tax payments. However, the bill should be modified to permit the cannabis businesses to use cyrptocurrency to pay all registration, application fees and taxes with cryptocurrency.