Russia: miners and investors will be governed by applicable laws

Miners and cryptocurrency holders in Russia will be regulated in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code, however, the possibility of separate regulation remains.

Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the RF State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, informed Izvestia that lawmakers are trying to pass a bill on digital financial assets or cryptocurrency funds at the autumn session of the Duma.

According to Aksakov, the bill will not contain separate taxation schemes for cryptocurrency holders, which means that Mining and distribution of cryptocurrencies will be governed by the current provisions of the Tax Code.

Aksakov clarified that persons involved in the circulation of virtual currencies will pay income tax, and legal entities will have to pay taxes in accordance with the type of their business. The official said that in the future, there may be separate taxation schemes for mining and cryptocurrency distribution, "if the government deems it necessary." Aksakov added:

If they (the government) want to determine [tax rates] for these types of businesses separately, then they will. Until now, we are not considering tax issues.

In May, the State Duma's Legislative Power Committee announced that it would support an initiative that would establish the norms of the digital economy in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The initiative is aimed at "minimizing the existing risks of using digital objects to transfer assets to an unregulated digital environment for money laundering, bankruptcy or financing terrorist groups."

Earlier this month, German Gref, director general of Sberbank, Russia's largest state bank, said that "the state will retain its central role in issuing money." Gref also said that he does not believe that the state is ready "to cede its role in transferring currency to some other decentralized institutions."

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