Bhagaban Behera ('83) poses question of accepting salary in Bitcoin in Economic Times article
The Economic Times (March 26, 2022)
Should you start accepting salary in Bitcoin?
It’s 2022 and the world has gotten a lot smaller. Teams are global today, and people are choosing to work from anywhere in the world. As for the creator economy, freelancers are taking up projects from different continents, and because of the ease of transactions are looking at cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
Now, the big question is, should you be drawing your salary in the form of crypto? Bitcoin has grown extremely popular over the past few years with countries like El Salvador adopting them as legal tender. This has pushed many companies and individuals towards using cryptocurrencies as alternatives to traditional money as it is free from large fees and regulations, complex taxation, and so on. However, if you are planning to look at crypto as an alternative to traditional money as your paycheck, here are some important things you'll need to evaluate.
Crypto as legal tender
India received some clarity on cryptocurrency this year, when the government clarified that it might have value but will not be legal tender (just like commodities such as gold and diamonds that have value of their own, but are not legal tender).
Apart from El Salvador, which in September last year adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, no other country has officially made crypto a legal tender.
India is working on legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies but a public draft hasn’t been released yet. (Read More)