They want to go to jail for hidden cryptocurrency trading

Owners of digital currency are offered imprisonment for up to three years in case of violation of the rules for reporting transactions with it. The Ministry of Finance has developed amendments to the laws, RBC reports.

If all the amendments are adopted, the owners of the digital currency will have to send to the tax service a report on transactions with it in the amount of more than 600,000 in terms of rubles. For failure to provide information on time, the guilty person faces a fine of 50,000 rubles, and for providing unlawful information, they will charge 10% of the largest of the two amounts in ruble equivalent – the amount credited or the amount debited.

Those who, within three years, carry out transactions on their account in the amount of 15 million rubles and do not report it, face a fine of 100,000 to 300,000 rubles, forced labor up to two years or arrest up to 6 months

Even harsher penalties for owners of 45 million rubles are a fine of 500,000 to 2 million rubles, forced labor for up to five years or imprisonment for up to three years. For the first time, the ownership of cryptoassets must be reported no later than April 30, 2022.

The department explained that legislative regulation is necessary to prevent the use of digital currencies for criminal purposes, including the financing of terrorism.

The Ministry of Finance’s initiative can be perceived positively, since an additional document appears that sets the rules of the game in the cryptocurrency market in Russia. This is a fight against illegal income, money laundering, and fraudulent schemes, says the founder of Amir Capital Group Marat Mynbayev.

“It will not be difficult for a law-abiding investor to declare his cryptocurrency and pay taxes, like for any other property” , – added Marat Mynbayev.

The calculation of the value of cryptoassets and proof of their acquisition are often impossible due to the specifics of such investments and the strong volatility of the coin rate, the founder of the Chatex p2p cryptocurrency platform Vladislav Bulochnikov draws attention.

“The proposal of the Ministry of Finance has a serious negative consequence – the bill, due to its rigidity, will slow down the development of blockchain technology in the country. And this direction is now one of the main ones in the digitalization of the economy not only in Russia, but also in the whole world “, – Vladislav Bulochnikov specified.