The move, heralded as a historic one by crypto industry insiders, will enable taxpayers in Lugano to pay their taxes in crypto seamlessly.
Switzerland has taken a step forward in crypto adoption with the latest policy move in one of its cities. Lugano, a city in the country, has partnered with a crypto asset service provider to enable its residents to pay taxes in crypto. Through a press release, the city has shared details of the development promoting crypto payments in the city.
Initially, the administration will accept crypto payments in Bitcoin and Tether. The crypto asset service provider partner will provide the backend infrastructure for the project. Meanwhile, the city’s residents will be able to pay all municipal taxes and community fees via BTC and USDT. The process will involve them scanning the codes on the QR bills of their respective invoices. Crypto payments can be entirely done through phones seamlessly.
As a city, Lugano has partnered with Tether on a project called Plan B. The project was created to use crypto and its underlying technology for Lugano’s financial system. Moreover, the city has been proactive in implementing blockchain earlier as well. It had tried accepting crypto payments and launching a blockchain-based app earlier. In Switzerland, other cities like Zug and Zermatt have also accepted tax payments through crypto.
In addition, Switzerland has also delved into other aspects of crypto, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Firstly, a month back, a CBDC pilot project had started in the country. The Swiss National Bank, commercial banks, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) had taken the lead for the project.
A year ago, Lugano inked a deal with El Salvador to promote Bitcoin, one of the city’s initial steps in crypto adoption. The move laid the foundation for Lugano’s future crypto policy decisions.
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