Russian Banking Association proposes taxing crypto mining as treasure

Russia could tax cryptocurrency mining activities, similar to how it taxes treasure findings or property, local news agency Izvestia report.

The Association of Banks of Russia has reportedly proposed to legally recognize crypto mining as “an analogy of occupation of property or treasure.” This would essentially make cryptocurrencies taxable within the existing legal framework.

Discussion of this proposal is scheduled for October 08, according to the information on the association’s website.

“In the Austrian legislation it is assumed that a person who acquires virtual assets as a result of mining occupies them, that is, captures them, becoming their first legal owner. Such an approach has a completely rational legal meaning,” the document reads (via online translation).

“Using legal fiction, it could be argued that the first owner of the crypto assets “found them”, since receiving from an anonymous system can be conditionally considered a find.”

The authors noted that operations with virtual currencies should be taxed on profit as exchange transactions in the Tax Code.

The legal status of cryptocurrencies in Russia is quite unclear. Initially, the regulators were considering imposing a complete ban, while later they expressed their intent to establish appropriate regulations for this emerging asset class.

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