Russian Ministry Suggests Criminal Liability For Failure To Declare Digital Asset Tax

The financial watchdog of Russia has recently proposed new tax requirements for the digital currency industry. To prohibit digital assets altogether or to tax them, that appears to be the question.

Russia’s Ministry of Finance now purportedly desires to present criminal obligation for failure to state taxes on cryptocurrency, including jail terms of up to 3 years.

As per a 24th September report by Kommersant, the Russian ministry suggests that individuals who does not, intentionally or unintentionally, report an amount of more than one million Russian rubles (around thirteen thousand USD) in annual virtual currency operations should serve a prison term of up to 3 years or hard labor.

The finance ministry also suggested significant fines for minor unreported sums. As such, any physical or legal entity in Russia would have to report their annual digital asset income if its amount surpasses one hundred thousand Rubles.

As the authority only identifies a limited number of ways to acquire digital assets, it is not instantly clear what sort of cryptocurrency transactions the ministry is looking to tax. Earlier this month, the ministry suggested a blanket ban on any virtual currency transactions apart from procuring it through 3 approaches: bankruptcy, inheritance, and enforcement proceedings.