The Association of Lawyers of Russia discussed the Cryptocurrency Taxation

The Association of Lawyers of Russia discussed changes in the tax legislation of the Russian Federation. The conclusion of the discussion will be transmitted to representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank, Federal Tax Service, Ministry of Digital Development and the State Duma.

On Tuesday, the Commission on the Legal Support of the Digital Economy of the Moscow Branch of the Russian Association of Lawyers discussed the taxation of cryptocurrencies. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Commission and the Central Administration of the AYUR, employees of the Federal Tax Service, members of the International Tax Association, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, lawyers, consultants, business representatives, as well as members of the scientific community.

On the agenda was a discussion on the taxation of operations with cryptoactive assets. As the professor and deputy director of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation Ilya Kucherov noted, this issue is one of the priorities in the sphere of legalization of operations with digital assets.

Most experts came to the conclusion that when taxing cryptoactive assets, it is necessary to adhere to a moderately liberal approach, otherwise the industry will go to the “gray” zone of the economy, and this will lead to significant budget losses. In addition, the meeting participants made the assumption that if in the future cryptocurrencies will obey exclusively to the general rules of taxation of property rights, various difficulties are inevitable in the results.

According to the Vice-President of the International Tax Association, Viktor Machekhin, our country should not use foreign regulatory experience in this area due to other priorities and peculiarities of taxation in Russia. In his opinion, Russia needs to come to its own concept of tax cryptoactive assets.

According to the participants of the meeting, it is necessary to equate all tokens to property rights. Due to this, it will be possible to stabilize the turnover and achieve full and reliable reflection of cryptoactive assets in accounting, according to the Chairman of the Commission and the managing partner of the law firm “EDB” Alexander Zhuravlev.

Mikhail Uspensky, Deputy Chairman of the Commission and partner of the law firm Taxology, suggested that the price of “foreign” cryptocurrencies (which circulate outside domestic platforms and not having a ruble equivalent) should be determined first in relation to Bitcoin, then to the US dollar, and then to the ruble at the rate established by the Central Bank. For this, it will be possible to use the cross-rate system, which is being developed by the RACIB with the assistance of the Commission.

Dmitry Kirillov, head of the practice of tax disputes at the IEF Audit, noted that it is much worse to lose time creating the ideal regulatory framework than quickly adopting incompletely perfect legislation and modifying it with “taking into account the real problems arising in practice”.

The meeting participants also made a proposal regarding full exemption from VAT of operations with digital rights and creation of benefits for cryptocurrency miners. To take advantage of these benefits, miners will need to receive accreditation from the Ministry of Digital Development, passing the details of their digital wallets to the agency so that the tax service can control the company’s revenues. This year, the marginal income for obtaining benefits is about 90 million rubles.

Following the meeting, an expert opinion will be issued, where proposals will be made to amend the legislation. This conclusion will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Federal Tax Service of Russia, the Bank of Russia, the Ministry of Digital Development, and the State Duma.

The issue of taxation of cryptoactive assets is handled by all large countries. Recently it became known that Singapore will cancel
tax on goods and services for cryptocurrency, and the US Tax Service promised to clarify
rules for paying taxes on cryptocurrency revenues. In the spring, the Australian Revenue Service also announced that it would monitor cryptocurrency operations.