30s Summary

The Federation Council in Russia has approved a bill that imposes a 13%–15% tax on cryptocurrency sales, however, miners are exempted from VAT. The bill, awaiting President Putin’s signature, also requires miners to report their activities or face potential fines of up to $360. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is trading at record highs against the ruble. Bitcoin’s global surge and the ruble’s devaluation against the US dollar contribute to this condition.

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Russia is hurrying to put new crypto taxes into place while Bitcoin continues to shatter records against the Russian ruble.

The country’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, has given the green light to a bill that includes new taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. Passed on November 27th, the law treats digital currencies as property and slaps a 13%–15% personal income tax on cryptocurrency sales. Russian crypto miners also get a break with the law exempting them from value-added tax (VAT) on the coins they mine.

After passing through three rounds in the State Duma, the bill is now waiting for President Vladimir Putin to sign it into law. Once this happens, it will become official as soon as it’s published.

The proposed law requires Russian crypto miners to report their activities to the government, treating digital currencies as property. This also applies to digital currencies used as payments in foreign trade deals inside the country’s legal crypto test zone.

If folks running Russia’s mining operations fail to report about their crypto mining services to local authorities, they could face penalties up to 40,000 rubles, or about $360. However, authorized miners won’t be taxed for their services within Russia.

At the same time, Bitcoin is trading at its highest ever level against the ruble. The kick-off of the new tax plans comes as Bitcoin is going through the roof compared to the ruble. In fact, on November 27th, Bitcoin reached an unprecedented high against the ruble, hitting almost 11 million rubles according to Coinbase data.

This surge in price is part measure due to Bitcoin’s global rise, with its price approaching $100,000 and the ruble losing value against the US dollar. To top that off, on the same day, the US dollar saw its highest value against the ruble in years, hitting 113 rubles per dollar. The last time it got to this point was briefly in March 2022 after Russia declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Right now, $1 is equal to about 111 rubles, which is a 25% increase from last year.