A bill that had been introduced by two Kentucky lawmakers, Chris Freeland and Steven Rudy, in the lower legislative house on Jan 8 seeking to exempt commercial cryptocurrency miners from paying the 6% sales taxes on their electricity bills and 6% excise taxes on mining equipment has been approved by the House budget committee. This paved the way for the bill to be passed to the upper legislative house.
According to the bill, Kentucky possesses the opportunity of becoming a leader in crypto mining in the USA since it has low energy rates and plenty of energy supply. The tax relief would go a long way in making the commonwealth more competitive.
The house lawmakers passed the bill, House Bill 230, that removes tax for the energy purchased for commercial cryptocurrency mining in a 19-to-2 vote, and on February 2, the House budget committee approved the bill.
This bill joins another bill passed by the Senate, Senate Bill 255 that also seeks to ease tax on the cryptocurrency mining operation in Kentucky.
It is, however, worth noting that in a report by Lexington Herald, some aired their concern especially with the large amounts of electricity consumed during crypto mining and they said that it may not be good for the state.
But Rudy the sponsor of the bill defended it saying,
“Mining for cryptocurrency takes a lot of electricity . . . It is not just a few people sitting in their mom’s basement or their parents’ basement writing code. This is actually highly sophisticated, highly technical.”
Rep. Josie Raymond (D) raised concerns asking,
“Why do we particularly want this industry in Kentucky?”
But Rudy was quick to respond,
“We would love to have more industry . . . We welcome industry here.”
As Kentucky welcomes crypto mining, New York’s attorney general sounded an alarm that if cryptocurrency participants were not ready to play by the rules, they risked being shut down.
BbusyEarning 