Lugano Switzerland Now Accepts Bitcoin, USDT for Tax Payments

The city of Lugano, Switzerland announced on Wednesday that it is ready to start accepting tax payments in cryptocurrency – including Tether (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC).

That includes payments for any invoice issued by Lugano, such as municipal services and all other community fees.

To empower the service, Lugano partnered with Bitcoin Suisse – a decade-old infrastructure provider for crypto trading, staking, and custody. The company leverages Swiss QR-Bill technology, which lets citizens and companies pay with crypto from their chosen mobile wallet by simply scanning a QR code.

The new payment option is intended to integrate crypto as a modern, flexible money.

“This move is part of Lugano’s Plan B, a collaborative effort with Tether to use Bitcoin technology as the basis for transforming the city’s financial system,” wrote Bitcoin Suisse in a press release. “The plan aims to integrate blockchain and Bitcoin into various aspects of daily life in Lugano.”

Lugano established both BTC and USDT as de facto legal tender early last year, revealing plans to make each currency easy to use for both consumer and municipal payments.

In a March update from Tether, the city revealed that 150 merchants around the city had begun accepting both cryptos, with expectations to expand to 2500 merchants by the end of the year.

Until now, crypto payments in Lugano were only possible through the city’s online portal. Now, all invoices are eligible for crypto payments irrespective of the service or amount.

Crypto Adoption in Switzerland

In its announcement last year, Tether said some of these services would include parking tickets, sewage fees, passport issuance fees, construction permit fees, port docking fees, and more.

Yet it isn’t just Lugano: back in 2021 the Swiss canton of Zug began accepting BTC and ETH for tax payments. In 2020, the city of Zermatt also started allowing Bitcoin tax payment in collaboration with Bitcoin Suisse.

Armin Schmid, Chief Product Officer at Bitcoin Suisse, said:

“It is great to see that more and more Swiss municipalities are offering payments in cryptocurrencies as an option available to both citizens and companies, complementing traditional payment methods such as post-office counters and e-banking platforms.”

On the national level, El Salvador remains the only country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Thanks to the asset’s latest gains, the country’s crypto investment recently returned to profit.