Though the only problem that I see is that, this could either make or break the profit of the government since these BTCs will be converted as soon as the former receives it.
This will have zero effect on the profit of the government. It will be immediately exchanged for fiat at the time of payment, so the government will receive exactly the amount of money they are expecting. No more, no less.
I don't see people using bitcoin to pay their taxes, but it's great that they are opening that option for people should they want to try another route for payments. they receive it, I guess it will not have an adverse effect on the market, as the volume of payments made through this route would be low for sure.
Even if the volume of payments were large, it would not have an adverse effect on the cryptocurrency market. Anyone that is paying their taxes with cryptocurrency would have paid their taxes in fiat if the cryptocurrency payment option weren't available. To make their payments in fiat, they would EITHER have needed to pay with fiat funds that otherwise could have been used to purchase cryptocurrency (reducing demand in the market and therefore reducing the exchange rate), or they would have needed to sell some of their cryptocurrency holdings in order to make the tax payment (increasing market supply and therefore reducing the exchange rate). Therefore, the sale of the cryptocurrency by the transaction processor will simply be moving that market pressure from the payor to the processor with no net effect on the exchange rate in comparison to if the governemtn didn't offer the cryptocurrency payment option.
Overall though, being able to pay your taxes with bitcoin is a cool thing, though we all know that not everyone will part ways with their bitcoin just to pay taxes.
EVERY payment that you make regardless of the method you use to make the payment, is causing you to part ways with your bitcoin whether you realize it or not.
Either:
- You are paying directly with your bitcoin.
- You are selling your bitcoin in order to make a payment with some other currency
- You are using currency that COULD HAVE been used to purchase and hold bitcoin if you didn't make that payment, thereby reducing the total amount of bitcoin you could have been holding.
All 3 options result in you holding less bitcoin than you could have held if you didn't need to make the payment.
doesn't it call for a sell tax on behalf of whoever does the conversion?
This probably depends somewhat on jurisdiction as each state has its own rules on sales tax, but here in Illinois, there is no sales tax on the purchase or sale of cryptocurrencies. There is, however, a capital gains tax that must be paid on the difference in the value of the cryptocurrency between when it was acquired and when it was sold or used. Alternatively, the seller can take a capital loss deduction against other similar capital gains if the value at the time of sale or use is lower than at the time of acquisition.