Georgia lawmakers consider giving crypto miners tax exemptions in new bill

Five Georgia House of Representatives members have introduced a bill to exempt local crypto miners and their use tax from sales and usage tax.

Georgia Representatives Don Parsons and Todd Jones, Katie Dempsey and Heath Clark introduced HB1342 on Monday. The bill has not yet been titled. The legislation would amend the state tax code to “exempt the sale of electricity used for the commercial mining digital assets.” It would only apply to commercial miners who operate in an area of at least 75,000 sq. feet, which is roughly 6,968 sq. meters.

This bill is the latest state-level measure to encourage crypto miners in setting up shop. A bill was introduced by Illinois legislators in January that would provide tax incentives to data centers involved in crypto mining. Similar legislation was proposed by Kentucky in March 2021.

Crypto miners Source: WikiCommons

For crypto companies looking to expand operations in the United States, electricity costs are still a significant factor. Bitfarms, a Canadian Bitcoin (BTC), mining company, announced in November that it would build its first data centre in Washington State. It cited its “cost-effective electricity and production rates”. Texas also received several firms after the crackdown on mining in China. This may be due to Texas’s deregulated power grid or renewable energy sources.

Related: US Treasury confirms that crypto miners are exempted from IRS reporting rules

As part of an agreement between ISW Holdings and Bit5iv, Georgia will have 56,000 Bitmain miner operators in Georgia by October. A bill was also passed by the Georgia legislature in March 2021 that calls for education officials to create a program at high schools that focuses on financial literacy, which includes cryptocurrency.