NEW COIN OF THE REALM
Dublin Cleaners the latest central Ohio business to accept cryptocurrency
Clerks at Dublin Cleaners can now add a new phrase to their service: “Will you be paying with credit card, Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum?”
The laundry company, which stopped accepting cash payments a few years ago, is now accepting cryptocurrency, joining a handful of central Ohio businesses that have dipped a toe into cyber currency waters.
Through the cryptocurrency service Coinbase, customers can pay for their cleaning using any of the currencies trading on the site, including the bestknown, Bitcoin.
Dublin Cleaners owner Brian Butler was inspired to accept cryptocurrencies after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tesla plans to allow Bitcoin payments for new cars.
“I personally have invested in cryptocurrencies for a few months,” Butler said. “And when Elon Musk said Telsa would start accepting it, I spoke with a crypto adviser and said, ‘Can I accept it?’ and he pointed me toward Coinbase. Then I checked with my CPA and she had a pretty quick answer, and said it was just like accepting foreign currency.”
To manage the exchanges, Butler created a Coinbase account for Dublin Cleaners. Customers who want to pay in cryptocurrency must also have an account with Coinbase, which calculates the exchange rate. Payments remain in Dublin Cleaners’ cryptocurrency account until Butler converts it to dollars.
This isn’t the first time Butler has experimented with payments. In 2018, he stopped accepting cash at Dublin Cleaners and hasn’t missed it, he said.
the provisions of the American Rescue Act and will issue guidance to tax preparers and taxpayers.
“The IRS strongly urges taxpayers to not file amended returns related to the new legislative provisions or take other unnecessary steps at this time,” the agency posted on its website last Friday.
“For those who haven’t filed yet, the IRS will provide a worksheet for paper filers and work with software industry to update current tax software so that taxpayers can determine how to report their unemployment income on their 2020 tax return,” the agency said. “For those who received unemployment benefits last year and have already filed their 2020 tax return, the IRS emphasizes they should not file an amended return at this time, until the IRS issues additional guidance.”
“We just advise people to hang on. Some people get pretty antsy,” said Ron Lykins, owner and CEO of Ron Lykins CPAS in Westerville.
“You’ll get the money,” said Ted Johnson, a partner with accounting firm Parms + Co. in Columbus.
Johnson said that for clients who have already filed their return, his firm is telling them that it will get back to them to file amended returns in coming weeks. For new returns, the firm will take the changes into account when preparing those documents, he said.
Lykins said the tax software his firm and other companies use will need to be updated before they can process the returns to account for the changes in unemployment benefits, along with the Child Tax Credit that was expanded by the rescue plan.
“The IRS has given some general guidance. There is no really firm direction at this point,” Lykins said.
For now, the tax break on unemployment benefits is not extended to Ohio taxes. That requires a change in Ohio law first.
Lawmakers currently are debating Senate Bill 18 that would allow that to happen. Expectations are that the legislature will pass the bill in the next week or two.
Taxpayers who already have filed their Ohio return will be able to file an amended return once that happens. mawilliams@dispatch.com @Bizmarkwilliams
“For those who haven’t filed yet, the IRS will provide a worksheet for paper filers and work with software industry to update current tax software so that taxpayers can determine how to report their unemployment income on their 2020 tax return.”