Russia Seeks Imprisonment for Undeclared Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Transactions

In the latest turn of events, the Russian Ministry of Finance has taken a harsh stance wrt cryptocurrency regulations. Crypto holders on not disclosing their digital assets (worth 45 million rubles or more) at least twice in a period of three years stand to face a jail term of up to three years. This, however, is an amendment from a previous version.

Russian BTC And Crypto Holders Could Face Jail Term

As per the latest update on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation, Russia’s Ministry of Finance looks to tighten its control on folks dealing with crypto assets. And how?

Cryptocurrency owners will face imprisonment for not reporting crypto transactions amounting to 45 million rubles or above. The proposed sentence for the same is up to three years. An earlier version of the proposed bill mentioned only 5 million rubles as the threshold for unaccountable money.

Also, according to the ‘package of bills‘ developed by the Kremlin based bureaucrats, a jail term of a minimum of 6 months is mandatory for non-declaration of BTC/crypto transactions worth 15 million rubles in a year.

This the Ministry of Finance said are “in line with the FATF recommendations,” and

Compliance with these recommendations will reduce the number of transactions related to money laundering obtained by criminal means.

Earlier this year, The Russian government led by Mr. Vladimir Putin had outlawed cryptocurrency as means of payments. This will become effective starting next year.

Obligations Of Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Owners

Crypto owners should report their holdings latest by April 30, 2022. Users must calculate the value of their digital currency stash based on the transaction’s date (purchase or sale). The country’s Federal Tax Service will put together the method for determining the market price of a particular crypto asset.

Digital current exchanges and miners must share the details of their bitcoin and other crypto transactions to Rosfinmonitoring. Failure to provide the appropriate transaction information timely will attract a fine of 50,000 rubles. Incomplete or complete non-payment of tax will attract a penalty of 40 percent of the total tax amount on all cryptocurrency transactions.

Details Of the Proposed Punishment

As mentioned above, the Russian Ministry of Finance seeks to award a 6-month prison sentence for non-disclosure of crypto assets worth 15 million rubles. But apart from the jail-term, defaulters could also pay fines ‘ranging from 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles’.

Also, the punishment could include forced labor of up to two years or deprivation of certain rights for up to three years.

For not reporting transactions worth 45 million rubles or more, the prison sentence is up to three years. Apart from this, the defaulter could be made to engage in forced labor for up to five years, along with deprivation of rights for three years.

Also, there’s an option of paying mandated fines in the range of 500 thousand to 2 million rubles.