To impose taxation on cryptocurrencies, their transactions must be legalised. This was stated by Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the State Duma Committee on Legislation, according to «Интерфакс».
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He noted that the Russian authorities do not yet have a clear position on cryptocurrency:
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“On the one hand, it is not recognised as an object; on the other hand, the government has introduced a bill to tax it. We tell them, guys, you decide: either you tax it, which makes it an object, or, if you say it is not an object, then do something,” he said.
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Krasheninnikov отметил, что пока криптовалюты «не попадают никуда».
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“You are asking me — and I am asking the government: will you legalise it? There is a position: ‘No, we do not want to, but we want to collect taxes.’ But this question must be answered.”
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He also suggested that cryptocurrencies in Russia could be regulated by analogy with narcotic substances.
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“Let such currencies be restricted in circulation, as, for example, with narcotic substances, where somewhere you can, somewhere you cannot,” the official noted.
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Lawyers were surprised by such statements. According to Mikhail Tretyak, partner at Digital Rights Center, based on such logic, “one could go mad inadvertently, because a host of legal questions arise”:
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“Is it necessary to introduce for digital financial assets and digital currencies their own classes of danger and regulation? These two infamous ‘where it is allowed’ and ‘where it is not’, where are their boundaries and how should they be defined? Could disseminating information about Bitcoin be equated with disseminating information about narcotic substances online under the signed законом?,”
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— ForkLog reports.
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“The only way out of this impasse is for the state to finally begin a dialogue with representatives of the crypto industry and introduce regulation that is agreed with them,” the lawyer noted.
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Earlier, the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Codification and Improving Civil Law, chaired by Krasheninnikov, criticised the bill on taxing cryptocurrency transactions.
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As reported, on 17 February the State Duma in the first reading accepted the bill as the basis.
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