The surge in the value of cryptocurrencies has alarmed a few countries like India. But countries like Russia seem to be steering towards the industry by regulating digital assets. The country has been portraying itself as a crypto-friendly country for quite a while now. With an array of investors diving into the business, the government intends to tax the benefits acquired from trading crypto.
The Russian State Duma recently revealed that a bill pertaining to the taxation of crypto was approved.
Russia Now Recognizes Crypto As Property
The draft bill issued by the Russian Federation to tax cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], and the others received a thumbs up from the Committee on State Building and Legislation of Duma. The bill which was approved on 15 February 2021 helped crypto assets in being perceived as property in the country. This would mean that all the profits garnered by the citizens of Russia from trading crypto would be taxed.
With the crypto industry currently valued at a high of $1.54 trillion, several have started trading different cryptocurrencies. However, Russians would have to deal with taxes only if their yearly transactions exceed $8,100 or 600,000 rubles.
The announcement further read,
“The authors of the bill point out that cryptocurrency is often used for tax evasion, money laundering and financing illegal activities. And now the tax authorities do not have information about cryptocurrency wallets opened by Russian legal entities and citizens of the Russian Federation and the operations carried out on them.”
Furthermore, pointing out the repercussions of avoiding these taxes or providing false information pertaining to their crypto transactions, the bill announced a 40% fine on the former and a 10% fine on the latter.
While this seems to be taking off, the central bank digital currency [CBDC] aka the digital ruble of the country could be gaining momentum. Prominent wireless service platforms of the country, MegaFon as well as Beeline are reportedly considering including the digital ruble wallets on to the phones of the citizens of the country.