Recently, the cryptocurrency has become a full-fledged market participant in Russia, although it does not yet have all the rights on a par with other means of payment. So far, the cryptocurrency is considered from the point of view of legislation as property that is taxed. According to the law on digital financial assets, cryptocurrency can be used for investing, buying and selling, as well as mining. The only thing that cannot be done in Russia with digital money is to pay for purchases and pay for services with it. Changes in the legislation came into force from the first day of 2021, and non-compliance with the new rules threatens unconscious citizens with administrative, or even criminal liability.
In order not to run into a fine and not get sued, you need to know what the law on digital financial assets provides. According to this document, in 2021, it is required to declare profits exclusively from the sale of cryptocurrency. That is, this applies primarily to traders, as well as holders and investors of cryptocurrency, who can earn with a significant increase in its price.
The procedure for filing a declaration does not differ from that for declaring income of standard categories. As before, the taxpayer must submit the document no later than the end of the financial year – April 30. The declaration requires you to specify the amount of income from which you need to deduct the funds spent on the purchase of cryptocurrency, even if this event occurred a long time ago (in the case of long-term storage of cryptocurrency). Moreover, the indication of the value of the cryptocurrency and the turnover of digital finance must be documented by printouts and screenshots (depending on the option of filing a declaration) of the cryptocurrency wallet and the currency exchange rate that was at the time of the transaction. The declaration is submitted at the place of registration or in electronic form on the website of the tax service in the taxpayer’s personal account.
What happens if you try to hide the income from cryptocurrency transactions? Many holders of digital currencies may think that the blockchain is an anonymous system, which means that it is not controlled by the state in any way. But if tax evasion becomes known to the fiscal authorities, it will entail a number of certain problems, the extent of which depends on many factors. The defaulter faces a fine – 5% of the amount of tax that was not paid at the specified time, and the fine is calculated for each month of delay. At the same time, it should be noted that the fine cannot be more than 30% and be less than 1 thousand rubles. The personal income tax rate is applied the same as in the case of property – 13%. But if the income exceeds 5 million, the rate increases to 15%.
A one-time penalty for non-payment of tax can be 20% if it happened unintentionally, and about 40% if it is proven that the tax evasion was intentional. In addition to the fine, the unconscious recipient of income from cryptocurrency transactions will have to pay both the tax itself and the penalty. If suddenly, when calculating the fine, it turns out that the amount of unpaid tax is more than 2.7 million rubles for the past 3 years, the citizen will face criminal proceedings for non-payment of taxes (up to 1 year of imprisonment). And in case of exceeding 13 million rubles, the term will be increased to 3 years. Taxes are required to pay not only individuals who receive income from transactions in cryptocurrency. First of all, the owners of companies working with cryptocurrency (exchangers, exchanges, etc.) must submit a declaration. Any income exceeding 600 thousand rubles per year is subject to the declaration.