Russia to discuss handing over the bitcoin market to the tax authorities.
The regulator of the cryptocurrency market in Russia could be the Federal Tax Service. In an interview with «Известиям», Deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Moiseev said.
According to him, the bill to appoint the regulator is currently under consideration in the State Duma.
«The issue is under discussion. In the concept we have developed, the supervisory body will receive declarations from people about their wallets and transactions. Currently, for foreign accounts this is done by the Federal Tax Service. It is logical to suppose that regulation should also be handled by it,» the official said.
Moiseev reminded that in the baseline regulatory concept, legal and natural persons will be allowed to mine cryptocurrencies, sell them on external markets or store them in wallets. Payments for goods or sales on the domestic market, except under experimental legal regimes, are prohibited.
At the same time, information about transactions will be sent to three bodies: the Federal Tax Service, Rosfinmonitoring, and the Central Bank of Russia, and all wallet operations must be declared, and taxes paid on them.
According to GMT Legal managing partner Andrey Tugarin, the consequences for the crypto market from appointing a regulator will not change. In his words, other legislative acts currently under consideration by the State Duma are more important in this context.
«Regardless of to whom crypto holders will attribute their declarations, what matters is on what basis and what liability will apply for non-compliance,» said the lawyer.
He reminded that in Russia at present only one specialized law exists — “On Digital Financial Assets” (“On DFA”). At the same time, a number of initiatives remain in limbo.
In particular:
- amendments to the Tax Code stalled at the second reading;
- the bill amending the law “On DFA”, containing provisions on experimental legal regimes (ELR), mining, and restrictions on cryptocurrency circulation in Russia did not advance beyond the first reading;
- the bill on ways to introduce ELR, the fate of which depends on the Central Bank’s decision.
«It’s too early to assess the consequences of appointing a regulator — we have not yet created either legal or technical infrastructure to regulate cryptocurrency turnover. And discussing anything seriously with people who use the phrase “foreign crypto wallets” is simply foolish,» added Mendeleev.
According to Indefibank CEO Sergey Mendeleev, Moiseev’s statement does not guarantee real assignment of regulator functions to the Federal Tax Service.
«In all projects currently under consideration in the State Duma, the regulator of the crypto sector is the Central Bank. Changing this paradigm will take at least a year and a half,» the expert explained.
He stressed that the cryptocurrency issue is merely a PR exercise for officials and a means of boosting their visibility.
«Wasting time trying to figure out the real state of affairs under such circumstances is simply counterproductive. And discussing anything seriously with people who use the phrase “foreign crypto wallets” is just silly,» added Mendeleev.
BitOK founder Dmitry Machikhin reminded that discussions about a possible crypto regulator in Russia have been going on for about seven years, and it is too early to draw conclusions from Moiseev’s statement. He did, however, acknowledge that given the level of digitalisation and the Federal Tax Service’s awareness, appointing it to this role would be the most appropriate solution.
Back in April, more than 60% of BitOK users in Russia stated in the tax authorities’ interest in their bitcoin transactions.
In March, the Ministry of Finance of Russia submitted to the bill regulating cryptocurrency mining criminal liability provisions for failing to declare digital assets.
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