President Vladimir Putin’s government is moving quickly to regulate the crypto sector amid Bitcoin’s historic surge. In a recent development, the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, approved a bill outlining the taxation framework for crypto assets. Putin has long sought to reduce Russia’s reliance on the US dollar for international transactions, and tools such as CBDCs and cryptocurrencies are seen as crucial to achieving this goal.
Under this bill, Russia has classified virtual digital currencies as property and imposed a tax of 13 to 15 percent on crypto sales that generate personal income. Cointelegraph report Citing information from official document noted.
To establish Russia as a crypto mining hub, the government has exempted crypto miners from value added tax (VAT) on mined cryptocurrencies. Miners are required to follow government regulations and provide required information to local authorities. Violating these guidelines can result in a fine of RUB 40,000 (approximately Rs 30,754).
The bill has been passed three times in the Russian legislature and is awaiting President Putin’s signature to become law. The timeline for finalizing it remains unclear.
The move comes after the election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, following which Bitcoin reached a historic all-time high of close to $100,000 (approximately Rs 84.4 lakh).
President Putin appears to believe that virtual digital assets (VDAs) like Bitcoin could aid Russia’s economic recovery from sanctions imposed by various countries following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since the beginning of this year, Russia has taken several steps to regulate the virtual digital assets sector.
Back in March, Russia joined Brazil, China and South Africa – the BRICS group – Plan A digital payment network, backed by digital currencies. Recently President Putin expressed support For this initiative, it was highlighted that digital currencies can benefit not only the BRICS countries but also other developing economies.
In July this year, President Putin signed digital ruble bill Helping Russian citizens process payments through the digital ruble CBDC.