The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation is set to qualify miners as individual entrepreneurs and impose a tax on cryptocurrency mining. The draft law is currently being negotiated to get fully fledged by mid-2018. According to Aleksey Moiseev, Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation, free transactions involving cryptocurrencies shall be outlawed. However, there will be accredited platforms.
“The concept is already generally agreed upon,” Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said. He stressed that it is crucial to ensure cryptocurrencies are bought and sold only via properly licensed organizations.
Moreover, ICO investors are planned to be protected. The ministry suggests that a financial asset is clearly defined, regulated, and that it includes digital currencies and tokens. Initial coin offerings shall be capped at 1 million rubles. Unqualified investors will only be able to pour into ICOs up to 50,000 rubles. To control all the trades carried out with smart contracts, the officials proposed establishing a centralized depository. The Russian Federation has always treated topnotch digital financial instruments with caution, yet, as cryptocurrencies are sweeping the world, it has to find a way to adapt to it and elaborate a legal base for it. The work upon the draft law was initiated by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2017.
Meanwhile, neighboring Belarus opted for legalizing cryptocurrencies and ICOs in the country. So, there are no restrictions to creation, storing, and circulation of tokens; moreover, no taxes related to cryptocurrencies are expected until 2023.
