New Zealand Paves Way For Crypto Payroll

New Zealand will now allow employers to compensate their workers in cryptocurrency, reports in Blockchain News said Tuesday (Aug. 13).

New Zealand tax authorities published a ruling this month that includes guidance for employers that wish to pay their staff in cryptocurrency. Tax regulators noted that businesses can use foreign exchanges to facilitate their crypto payments, and offered guidance on how to calculate PAYE taxes and levies when paying in crypto.

“If the appropriate valuation cannot be obtained from a New Zealand-based exchange, an overseas-based exchange can be used,” the ruling stated. “For some ‘altcoins’ (crypto-assets other than bitcoin) it may be necessary to convert into U.S. dollars or another fiat currency, and then convert into NZD.”

As the publication noted, New Zealand’s position on crypto payroll is “quite progressive” considering other jurisdictions’ hard stance on the technology. Reports pointed to the de facto cryptocurrency banks in India and China, for instance.

But New Zealand isn’t the first to consider the potential for crypto to disrupt the payroll space.

Last year, Uphold Chief Revenue Officer Robin O’Connell spoke with Karen Webster about the opportunities of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in payroll.

“With money, people always want the same three things: faster, easier and more transparent,” O’Connell said. “We think with Bitwage and Dash, we can continue to open that up for a lot more people all over the world.”

Bitwage is another company banking on crypto in payroll, having told PYMNTS in a 2016 interview that crypto can support the increasingly global nature of the workforce and its need to receive funds across borders.

“As we started building, we realized that, with the world globalizing as it is right now, there’s a trend towards distributed workforce,” Bitwage Founder and President Jonathan Chester said. “And there’s not really been any system out there built for managing these workforces.”