Rio De Janeiro is planning to accept cryptocurrency payments for real estate tax dues starting 2023. Based on the reports, this city in Brazil will allow people to pay using Bitcoin (BTC).

The acceptance of Bitcoin as payment for real estate taxes is said to be a project being led by the city’s Mayor Eduardo Paes and Binance’s chief executive officer, Changpeng Zhao.

It was announced that the crypto exchange firm is set to open a new office in Rio De Janeiro to begin working on the digital currency payment scheme for real property tax.

“He (Mayor Paes) has done his share and we are doing ours,” the Binance chief said.

According to Bitcoinist, the city released a note regarding the plan to allow crypto payments. The City Hall of Rio de Janeiro said that it would be signing contracts with multiple companies to manage the conversion of cryptocurrencies to Brazilian reals.

“To facilitate the operation, the municipality will contract with firms that specialize in converting cryptocurrency to reais,” the officials stated in the notice. “In this manner, City Hall will receive the whole amount in money.”

CoinTelegraph reported that Rio de Janeiro will officially start accepting Bitcoin to pay for taxes pertaining to real estate properties across the city’s boundary. In local terms, this is said to be called the Imposto sobre a propriedade predial e territorial urbana of the IPTU.

It was added that new pro-crypto tax laws are also set to be introduced and must be followed starting next year. This update was confirmed and announced by Chicão Bulhões, Rio De Janeiro’s Secretary for Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification.

The launch of this scheme will place Rio de Janeiro as the first city in brazil to normalize Bitcoin payments. The territory is also planning to use non-fungible tokens or NFT-based governance guidelines across different local markets in the arts, tourism, and culture.

In any case, Pedro Paulo, the city’s finance and planning secretary, claimed that Rio De Janeiro intends to offer an additional discount as well. The deduction will be applied to citizens who will use cryptocurrency to pay their taxes.