on the crypto
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new order requiring public officials to publicly report any investments in cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency tax reporting obligation for all current or potential Russian civil servants
According to a document signed by President Putin last week, both current civil servants and people about to assume a government position must disclose what digital assets they own, as well as in what quantity and where they were purchased from.
The first reports must be provided starting January 1 through June 30, 2021 and must include all types of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, digital securities and utility tokens, owned by a current or potential government official, as well as their spouses and children.
Individuals planning to take on government roles will also need to make a statement regarding their crypto holding during the application process. Disclosures will complement the customary mandatory candidate property reporting, a standard anti-corruption procedure.
Russia proceeds to define a regulation for the crypto sector
Cryptocurrencies are recognized as a type of property by a Russian law signed by Putin this summer and which will go into effect in January. The country's Ministry of Finance recently proposed a package of bills detailing the rules for reporting cryptocurrencies for tax purposes.
According to the drafts, individuals and companies must report their holdings if the annual transactions exceed 600.000 Russian rubles (approximately $ 7.800). Otherwise, fines or up to three years in prison will be imposed, depending on the amount of cryptocurrency kept hidden from the tax agency.
In particular, failure to promptly disclose the entire amount of cryptocurrency held, as well as failure to pay taxes for three consecutive years, will result in a tougher sentence: up to six months in prison for undeclared cryptocurrencies worth 15 million rubles. (~ $ 195.000) and up to three years in prison for 45 million rubles (~ $ 586.000) and more.
Fewer penalties for non-compliance with cryptocurrency laws
However, the government ended up changing these rules, making them softer. On November 30, he introduced a lighter version of the bill in the Russian parliament, the State Duma.
Under this bill, failure to promptly report crypto holdings should result in a fine of 50.000 rubles (approximately $ 682), and not reporting them at all means a fine of 10% of the sum of all incoming or outgoing transactions. whichever of the two amounts is greater.
