Swiss ski resort accepts bitcoin for settling tax bills

by
Matthew Allen
My articles My siteAbout meMy booksMy videos
Follow on:

Zermatt is a regular haunt for well-heeled international winter sports lovers. (© Keystone / Christian Beutler)

The iconic ski resort of Zermatt has become the second local authority in Switzerland to allow residents to pay their tax bills using the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Zermatt, which lies in the shadow of the Matterhorn mountain, said on Tuesday that it will allow people living there to pay the whole range of taxes in bitcoin with no limit on the amount they contribute in the cryptocurrency.

In 2018, the town of Chiasso in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland said it would accept bitcoin up to a limit of CHF250 ($257) to settle tax bills. Zug, which is home to Switzerland’s self-styled “Crypto Valley”, has since 2016 accepted bitcoin worth up to CHF200 as payment for government services such as administrative fees associated with starting a business.

Zermatt, a regular haunt for well-heeled winter sports fans from around the world, has taken this a step further, accepting unlimited bitcoin tax payments plus up to CHF150 in bitcoin for administrative services.

“We are in the process of developing our IT technology across all departments,” Zermatt mayor Romy Biner-Hauser told swissinfo.ch. “We are open to new innovations and are curious to see how cryptocurrencies could fit in with our infrastructure.”

The resort has teamed up with Zug-based crypto financial services company Bitcoin Suisseexternal link to process the cryptocurrency payments. The same company performs this task for Zug while Chiasso employs the services of local blockchain company Eidooexternal link.

“We are curious to see how many people want to use bitcoin to pay their tax bills,” Biner-Hauser added. “We do not expect too many people at first, but we want to show that we are keeping up with the times and are not old fashioned.”