Panama City to Accept Crypto for Taxes and Fees

Crypto is slowly but surely making its way into governments and institutions. Panama City is the next one that we can add to this list. However, they’re not considering it, they already did it.

Now, citizens will be able to pay various administrative fees with crypto. For example, taxes, fees, tickets, and permits. Let’s take a closer look at what happens now that Panama City accepts crypto for payments.

What Happened in Panama City?

Panama City has become the first public institution of government to accept crypto payments. The city’s mayor, Mayer Mizrachi, proudly announced this on X. See the post below. Its city council has voted in favor of this new law.

As already mentioned, citizens can now pay taxes, fees, tickets, and permits with crypto. For starters, Panama City does accept crypto payments with $BTC, $ETH, $USDC, and $USDT. 

Mayor Mizrachi also mentions that prior administrations tried to push a bill in the Senate to make this possible. However, this hasn’t worked out yet. There was a bill from 2021 that established the use of virtual assets. Panama’s Supreme Court declared, in June 2023, that this bill was unconstitutional. See the picture below.

Source: X

In other words, Panama City requires new legislation before it can accept crypto. However, Mayor Mizrachi has found a way around this. He states that legally, public institutions must receive funds in USD. The city will partner with a bank that will take care of the crypto transactions. The bank will convert the crypto to Dollars.

Now the city can accept crypto and pay the public institutions in Dollars. In other words, there’s no need for new legislation. A creative way to bypass the current legislation that is in place. Once again, proving that when there’s a will, there’s also a way.

This also makes Panama City the first public institution of government to accept payments in crypto. Well done, Mayor Mizrachi and the city council of Panama City.

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