Russia removes tax amnesty from drafted block reward mining bill

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, has revised several draft block reward mining bill provisions. One of these is a proposed one-year tax amnesty for block reward miners.

The tax amnesty would have applied to new block reward miners. The rationale was for them to have a grace period in which they could establish themselves by not paying taxes on customs clearing of mining hardware or profits made.

In their review of the bill, the legislators stated that the provision would “possibly incur costs on the federal budget,” according to a local media report.

A subsection that would have demanded block reward miners to join a registry of mining operators has also been cut out. Block reward miners are now required to only follow a standard procedure for corporate registration and register as self-employed or sole proprietors.

Regardless of these changes, the new draft of the law “On mining in the Russian Federation,” which was submitted recently, shares many similarities with the former, excluding the changed provisions. The law was first proposed last month, but the former draft has been withdrawn.

Russia has a long way from banning digital currencies

Russia seems to be making a swift headway toward introducing regulations across the board for the digital currency industry. One of the latest is from Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturo, who revealed that regulations for the digital currency industry are “coming soon.”

The minister explained that both the Central Bank of Russia and the government are now actively looking to legalize the industry. This is in stark contrast to the divided stance Russia held about digital currencies earlier this year.

Back in January, Reuters reported that Russia’s central bank proposed to ban the use of digital currencies and block reward mining. The bank held firmly that the digital assets could be used to facilitate money laundering and terrorism financing.

The war on Ukraine and the sanctions that have followed from the international community have greatly contributed to Russia’s change of policy direction. Currently, Russia is also on track to launch its CBDC by 2023.

The central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, stated that the digital rubble is among the country’s priority projects. The project is currently being tested in collaboration with other central banks.

Watch the BSV Global Blockchain Convention Dubai 2022 Day 1 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggbZ8YedpBE

Watch the BSV Global Blockchain Convention Dubai 2022 Day 2 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzJsCRb6zt8

Watch the BSV Global Blockchain Convention Dubai 2022 Day 3 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSCrXf1Ywc