Ministry of Money Russia continues to strengthen regulation of cryptocurrencies. ForkLog obtained a copy of the documents with new corrections to the Criminal, Tax and a number of other codes.
In the refreshed package of documents, they left the proposals exposed before this, that relate to the issue and circulation of digital rights and cryptocurrency. Taking these actions bypassing Russian information infrastructure facilities, leading to "generating a lot of income", punishable by fines or imprisonment.
The adjustments also imply the introduction of liability for non-declaration of crypto money. How physical, so organizations will have to submit reports to the tax, if the amount of income on the crypto wallet for the calendar year exceeds 100 thousand rubles.
In this case, the tax authority will need to report on the availability of a cryptocurrency wallet, turnover and balance.
Failure to declare assets in an amount equivalent to over 1 million rubles per year for individuals is punishable by a fine of up to 300 thousands of rubles or arrest up to 6 Months.
If funds are not declared for 5 millions of rubles and more, the offender may face a fine of up to half a million rubles or imprisonment for up to 3 years.
For organizations, the fine is up to 300 thousand rubles or arrest up to 6 months threatens in case of non-declaration of an amount equivalent 3 million rubles per year, and fine up 2 million rubles or up to 3 years - for undeclared assets for 15 million rubles.
Late declaration of funds leads to a fine of thirty percent of the amount of cryptoassets, but more 50 thousand rubles.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance makes it possible to force exchangers to report to the tax authorities on transfers of money and cryptoassets for transactions with users from Russia..
The ministry advises to identify them according to the data for making payments of payment cards and the Russian Haypishnik.
The documents indicate, that the introduction of cryptographic currencies in the commission of crimes can be considered an aggravating circumstance.
According to Moscow Digital School specialist Efim Kazantsev, a new package of changes with administrative and criminal liability was expected, but “the Ministry of Finance managed to amaze even those, who watched the development of the situation ".
“Apart from liability for non-compliance with the norms of the issue and circulation of digital monetary assets, it is proposed to introduce administrative and even criminal punishment simply for, what did not say to the tax office about the presence of a cryptocurrency wallet, which has digital means ", - he said in response to ForkLog.
Antonina Levashenko, member of the Commission on Legal Support of the Digital Economy of the Capital Branch of the Association of Lawyers of the Russian Federation, noted, that the adjustments “establish responsibilities for organizations, what is innovation for the Penal Code, for the reason that, that there is no doctrine of their responsibility as such ”.
Exante co-organizer Anatoly Knyazev thinks, that such a formidable responsibility "appears to be disproportionate to the amount of violations":
“It is extremely possible, that lawmakers still cannot determine, where to put a comma in the phrase "legalize cannot be prohibited", He told ForkLog.
Lawyer Maria Agranovskaya calls one of the main issues the confusion of the terminological apparatus and "the danger of collisions in the absence of strict conditions and awareness of the essence of crypto money and their differences from other assets".
In addition, she noted the "complete isolation" of Russian lawmakers from world experience..
"We have the funniest thing., that we are trying to invent something of our own, however, in even more successful states, everything was allowed and invented. We have completely confused everything for ourselves. ", – Agranovskaya believes.
She stressed, that the introduction of crypto money abroad has not yet been fully determined:
“There is no complete certainty regarding the terminology: how to report foreign assets to the tax authorities, how to distinguish foreign utility tokens from cryptographic currencies - the terminological apparatus in the Russian Federation is very different from that adopted in practice and regulation, for example, most of the EU states ".
She stressed, that the Ministry of Finance should work with an expert society to explain the procedure for reflecting assets in financial statements in the Russian Federation.
“To force foreign companies to issue documents according to Russian rules, Certainly, unrealistic".
Efim Kazantsev reports, what hope is, that the adjustments will not be perceived, eat, but she is "very weak".
“Therefore, if there are no significant circumstances to own digital currency, my advice is to clean your crypto wallets just in case in order to prevent claims from law enforcement agencies ", He said..
Agranovskaya reported, that the path of prohibition only leads to the creation of dark and grayish markets and the departure of all operations abroad, which could generate tax revenue in Russia, and "draconian measures of responsibility in the absence of clear rules of the game attract direct violation of people's interests".
Let's emphasize, The State Duma approved the draft law "On digital monetary assets" in July.
It regulates digital asset management, also concerns the turnover of cryptographic currencies.
Foreseen, that more carefully the regulation of cryptographic currencies will be outlined in some draft law or allowed by adjustments to the adopted law "On Digital Assets" ("About CFA").
