Russian Parliamentary Committee OKs Crypto Tax Bill, but Flaws Remain

Russia has moved a step closer to imposing a system of crypto tax, after the country’s parliament, the State Duma, approved a much-maligned crypto tax bill in the first reading at the committee stage – although the story is unlikely to end there.

As previously reported, the country’s first crypto-specific act (finalized in summer last year) was promulgated on January 1 this year, outlawing payments in cryptoassets. But the final act ended up being a very different creature to what was originally passed in the first Duma reading of the bill, all the way back in May 2018.

And a presidential advisory body has recently told the architects of new crypto tax policies that they may need further legislative approval before any tax plans win final approval.

Regardless, lawmakers on the Duma’s Committee on Budget and Taxes have green-lighted the crypto tax bill, which would seek to criminalize the non-declaration of crypto trading profits, reported News.ru.

However, just as the presidential advisory board noted, Russia’s legal framework is yet to receive a definition of terms such as “cryptoasset” or “digital asset.” Without these, experts claim, it is impossible to “create laws that control processes with cryptocurrencies.”

The bill’s architects, though, are confident that they can overcome such hurdles. The legislation will now return to the committee stage ahead of a second reading, where the media outlet that MPs will address a number of other crypto-related matters that could be bundled with the proposal.

The matters could seek to clarify legal terminology, and could rule on the legality or otherwise of “issuing and circulating” digital assets in Russia, with a total ban on crypto trading still not completely out of the question.
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