This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.
That sounds to me like a roundabout way of saying they have a right to refuse service. As in, you walk to the counter, order something and then try to pay with a Benjamin, they can just say “sorry” and not give you your item. I guarantee you, if someone performs a service for you, and you attempt to pay them in pennies, and they refuse to take it, the law is on your side.
And what does any of this have to do with taxes? I really hope you don’t think the government is a “private business, a person or an organization.”
The treasury website disagrees, saying you can refuse to take bills higher than $20, implying you also wouldn’t be forced to accept pennies. Do you suggest vending machines are illegal?
Okay, you win. When the tax-man comes by you can pay him in blueberries or play him a song on your guitar. Or you can flat out refuse to pay, and there’s nothing they’re gonna do about that.
But then you have one thing left to explain: if government pieces of cotton are backed by nothing, and nobody uses it in production or consumption (which is actually a federal offense), then how does it have any market value at all? How does it fit in the means-ends framework of human action?
@Wheylous: I think it would be more accurate to say “If you engage in any sort of economic activity whatsoever and you never possess US dollars (in the US), you are breaking the law.” You must pay taxes on any economic activity - there’s a tax law for everything. US taxes can only be paid in US dollars. Hence, if you’ve engaged in any sort of economic activity this year, then you must at some point get possession of US dollars if only so you can pay them to the IRS to settle your tax obligation. The citation is the US tax code. If you’d like a detailed refutation of all “frivolous tax arguments”, just search that term in Google and click on the irs.gov link.
I am saddened to find videos on Youtube where people pay businesses with pennies as a prank and then call the police claiming it’s national law to accept the “legal tender.”
I do believe we’ve hit an all time low [after the peak of $30].
From $30 to $6 in three months.
I imagine Pete Surda and Irdail and Moonshadow and all the other Defenders of the Bitcoin Faith are too busy grabbing as many bitcoins as they can at this bargain price to write their long posts showing how foolish we are to doubt.
P.S. Dropped to $5.95 in the time it took to write this.
I kept saying bitcoins are totally useless with no intrinsic value. Luckily Paul Krugman corrected me:
In effect, Bitcoin has created its own private gold standard…
Truth be told, I’m taking that line out of context.
I thought a three month drop from $30.00 to it’s current $4.78 is a wile e coyote type crash. But no:
The dollar value of that cybercurrency has fluctuated sharply, but overall it has soared. So buying into Bitcoin has, at least so far, been a good investment.
Would make a great ad campaign. Bitcoin. Paul Krugman likes 'em.
