Rio de Janeiro will start accepting Bitcoin tax payments next year

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is taking significant strides toward becoming a worldwide center for the Bitcoin business. Residents of Rio de Janeiro will be able to pay real estate taxes using bitcoin starting in 2023.

Rio de Janeiro is anticipated to be the first city in Brazil to accept bitcoin tax payments. Chico Bulhes, the Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation, and Simplification, made the announcement. To make this proposal a reality, beginning in 2023, the city will engage a variety of firms to convert cryptocurrencies into Brazilian reais, ensuring that City Hall receives 100% of the proceeds in fiat currency.

Rio also intends to launch its own non-fungible tokens (NFT) collection, which will include images of the city’s most prominent tourist attractions. The purpose of this move is to increase tourism while also motivating local artists to use NFTs.

Rio’s Finance Secretary, Pedro Paulo, added that incorporating cryptocurrency into tax payment is just the beginning, as the city intends to extend to other services in the future.

The grandiose crypto aspirations of the Brazilian metropolis are not surprising. It was previously reported that the mayor of Brazil’s second-most populated city, Eduardo Paes, planned to designate 1% of the city’s treasury reserves to cryptocurrency. Paes also disclosed that Rio had planned to offer citizens tax breaks if they paid in bitcoin.

Brazil is clearly taking substantial measures to aid in the growth of cryptocurrency usage. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated on Friday that he had reached an agreement with the mayor of Rio de Janeiro that will see the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume establish an office in the city. After Paes offered Zhao a key to the city, the plan to set up shop in Rio took form.

The epidemic had a heavy toll on Latin America as a whole, with worries of another financial crisis looming. Since El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender in September 2021, Latin American countries’ interest in cryptocurrency has grown.

Leaders in Panama, Paraguay, Argentina, and Mexico are now more receptive to bitcoin and are attempting to increase the role of the flagship cryptocurrency in their respective economies. By accepting cryptocurrency, these countries will be able to gain unparalleled benefits. In El Salvador, for example, the tourist business has grown by 30% since the country legally embraced BTC as legal cash.

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