The Russian Parliament to Approve Bill on Cryptocurrency
Taxation
A bill
updating Russia’s tax law to incorporate provisions pertaining to
cryptocurrencies has been filed with the State Duma, the lower house of
parliament. The legislation is tailored to regulate the taxation of sales and
profits of digital assets in the country.
The federal government of Russia has submitted to the State Duma a draft bill introducing rules for the taxation of transactions involving cryptocurrencies. The bill is likely to make the necessary amendments to Russia’s tax code to address the outstanding issues.
One of the
issues is the application of value-added tax (VAT). According to the authors,
VAT should be levied on services provided by operators of platforms issuing or
exchanging digital financial assets (DFA), a term encompassing cryptocurrencies
in current Russian law.
The tax base
for "digital rights," is
another legal definition. It covers security and utility tokens and will be determined as
the difference between the sale and acquisition price of the token, as reported
by the Forklog.
Russian
entities owning tokens will pay 13% of the revenues from their digital rights,
while the tax rate for foreign companies will be 15%. The issuers of digital
financial assets will be obliged to file tax reports on the parties involved
and the transactions made during the current year by Feb. 1 of next year.
The law will
not affect Russians holding cryptocurrencies, Andrey Tugarin, managing partner
at the law firm GMT Legal, told the crypto news outlet. He explained that the
bill concerns only the market for digital financial assets and digital rights.
The new taxation policy is similar to that of the securities market.
The Russian
government is also preparing to file a new draft law "On Digital
Currency," which has been recently revised and submitted to the cabinet by
the Ministry of Finance. The department is a proponent of the legalization of
cryptocurrencies. However, the well-known hardline approach of the Bank of
Russia has not stopped. The central
bank opposes the bill.
Both the bills for legislation are likely to be adopted during the spring session of the State Duma. They will complement the law "On Digital Financial Assets," which went into force in January 2021. It succeeded in partially regulating the country's crypto sector.
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