Five members of the Georgia House of Representatives have introduced a bill exempting local miners from paying sales and use tax.
Georgia representatives Don Parsons, Todd Jones, Kathy Dempsey, Heath Clark and Casey Carpenter introduced HB 1342, which has yet to be named. The legislation proposes amending the state tax code to “exempt the sale or use of electricity used in commercial mining of digital assets” and is likely to apply only to commercial miners working in a facility of at least 75,000 square feet — about 6,968 square metres. .
The proposed bill is the latest in a series of nationwide measures to encourage crypto miners to open shop. In January, Illinois lawmakers introduced a bill that would expand tax breaks for data centers that mine cryptocurrency. Kentucky proposed a similar law in March 2021.
Crypto miners. Source: WikiCommons.
Electricity costs remain a major factor for crypto companies looking to expand their operations in the United States and abroad. Canadian bitcoin (BTC) miner Bitfarms announced in November that it plans to build its first data center in Washington state, citing “cost-effective strength” and performance. Texas also acquired a number of companies after China’s crackdown on mining, possibly due to the state’s unregulated power grid and renewables.
Related: US Treasury confirms crypto miners are exempt from IRS reporting rules
56,000 Bitmain miners are expected to work in Georgia by October as part of an agreement with miner ISW Holdings and Bit5iv. Additionally, in March 2021, the state legislature passed a law calling on education officials to implement a financial literacy-based high school curriculum that includes cryptocurrency.
