The Central Bank of Russia has said that bitcoin and other digital currencies could be recognised as digital goods in Russia and made taxable. The suggestion is just the latest in a long line of proposals put forward by regulatory bodies which don’t quite know what to do with cryptocurrencies or how to designate them.
According to Bloomberg BNA, the Russian central bank is currently formulating legislation which would legalise and monitor bitcoin and the first version of the bill could be introduced into the country’s legislature, the State Duma, within a short a time as next month. The central bank’s deputy chairwoman, Olga Skorobogatova, explained these plans at a meeting in parliament on May 25th.
Skorobogatova, at a meeting of the working group for the Review of the Central Bank’s Annual Report for 2016 in the Duma, said:
“Since virtual money is emitted, which is not provided with a gold reserve or controlled in terms of their quantity, sooner or later it can lead to instability in financial markets. They should be regulated because volumes are increasing compared to the previous year. If people are engaged in this, they have to pay money for it, and we have to have a clear understanding of how to control this activity.”
By listing cryptocurrencies as digital goods, proper regulations will be able to be applied to them. Authorities can then clarify, in law, what taxes, monitoring and reporting systems can be set up to regulate the currencies.
With the latest developments, it seems as though Russia has dropped plans from last year which would see issuers of surrogate currencies, such as bitcoin, face up to four years in jail.
Source: BNA | Image via Bitcoin Gator
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