Wyoming is gearing up to become a very crypto friendly state with the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition reporting on Monday that the first two of five blockchain bills proposed have unanimously passed the Wyoming House of Representatives.
The two bills that passed will move on to the Senate. They include HB 19 “bitcoin bill,” and HB 70 “utility token bill,” which classifies the token in different classes. The remaining three bills will be voted on soon.
The passing of the utility token bill is a positive step for MetaX, and the company’s CRO Alanna Gombert said these types of laws are critical for companies focused on supporting the advertising industry with blockchain.
As the advertising industry moves to adopt blockchain, Gombert said the industry needs guidance and laws to prevent chaos.
Alana Gombert
Gombert said.
“Other bills have been proposed, but this is the most cohesive set of bills we’ve seen,”
The Coalition believes the law will bring revenue and technology into the state.
Wyoming Blockchain Coalition co-founder Caitlin Long said:
“In the past few weeks, we have learned that some of the most important companies in the blockchain sector are already Wyoming LLCs, and we’re expecting many more to come if the bills pass. Several ICOs have already formed to target the advertising industry, aimed at creating a new model for monetizing ‘eyeballs’ on the Internet. We don’t know if any of them will domicile in Wyoming, but they’re all welcome to come here.”
All five proposed blockchain bills have been supported nearly unanimously throughout all procedural votes to date during the legislative session, and Governor Matt Mead indicated support for the blockchain effort during his State of the State address a week ago, according to the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition.
The three remaining bills include HB 101 “blockchain filings bill,” HB 126 “series LLC bill,” and SF 111 “crypto property tax exemption bill.”
The Coalition estimates the global crypto market’s worth at between $500 billion and $700 billion. While much of the industry continues to operate overseas, moves such as this by the Wyoming legislation would potentially keep business in the U.S., with a hub in Wyoming.
Wyoming Introduces Bill To Exempt Crypto From Property Taxation
A new tax bill has been introduced in the Wyoming state senate on Feb. 16 that would exempt virtual currencies from state property taxation, and suggests an effective date be provided for the tax exemption implementation.
Wyoming Senate Bill 111 was introduced by senators Ogden Driskill, Tara Nethercott, and Chris Rothfuss, along with representatives Tyler Lindholm, David Miller, and Jared Olsen. All are Republicans with the exception of Senator Rothfuss.
The bill received 26 “ayes,” from a mixture of Republicans and Democrats, 3 “nays,” all from Republicans, and 1 “excused.”
This Republican and Democratic backed bill comes as a growing bipartisan movement of US lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for more crypto regulation.
The bill is short and to the point, proposing a list of “intangible items” that should qualify for property tax exemption, like fiat currency, gold, cashier’s checks, and “virtual currencies.” Virtual currencies are defined as anything that digitally represents value as a medium of exchange or unit of value, and as well as not being recognized as legal US currency.
Taxation requirements for cryptocurrency profits in the US are a relatively grey area, with US citizens’ crypto assets being subject to federal property and payroll taxes. However, the personal finance service Credit Karma reported that only 0.04 percent of customers reported their crypto assets to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2017 as of Feb. 13.
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