It is being reported that Ohio will be the first U.S. state to accept tax payments in Bitcoin. At first, only businesses will be able to make tax payments using the popular cryptocurrency, but it is expected that individual taxpayers will soon be able to make tax payments in Bitcoin as well. Tax payments in Bitcoin will begin taking place this week, and companies can make the payments using BitPay's payment processing service. Not only will they be able to pay their incomes taxes with Bitcoin but also other forms of taxes, such as cigarette taxes and employee withholding taxes. The state official responsible for this new policy is Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. Mandel is a believer in digital currencies, having recently called them a "legitimate form of currency." He also said that he wanted to "plan[t] a flag" for the state in the cryptocurrency world, which is an allusion to Neil Armstrong's planting of a flag on the moon for the United States. Though Mandel's term in office ends in January, he believes that the policy will continue after the next treasurer takes office. He also indicated that the policy change did not require approval from either the state governor or the legislature. Ohio is not the only U.S. state that has wanted to accept digital currencies for tax payments. However, in these other states, local legislatures have been able — at least for the time being — to block the initiatives from becoming law. In Arizona, for example, earlier this year both houses of the state legislature passed bills to allow tax payments in cryptocurrencies. But final approval of the bill has been blocked by a flurry of last-second amendments. Still, Arizona's initiative got much further than a similar initiative in the state of Georgia. There a bill was introduced in the state senate that would have allowed Georgians to pay taxes and license fees using digital currencies. But the bill never made it out of committee, which means that it is unlikely to proceed any further unless some new impetus pushes it forward.