The Ministry of Finance specified the amounts from which the concealment of cryptocurrencies will become a criminal offense

The Ministry of Finance has prepared and submitted for public discussion a package of legislative measures aimed at establishing control over the turnover of digital currencies. The Department explained the grounds for bringing to criminal and administrative responsibility for operations with cryptocurrencies, RBC writes.

Thus, citizens face up to three years in prison and a fine of 500,000 to 2 million rubles if they have not reported to the tax service at least twice in three years on operations with digital currencies in the amount of 45 million rubles or more.

In September, there was information that the equivalent of 5 million rubles could be considered a particularly large amount for applying this measure, but the amount was increased in the latest version of the document. A large amount is now considered to be 15 million rubles. For such an offense, a fine of 100,000 to 300,000 rubles, forced labor for up to two years, or arrest for up to six months is provided.

In addition, it is proposed to oblige cryptocurrency owners to report to the tax service on receiving digital currency, on transactions with it, and on its balances in the crypto wallet, if the amount of transactions exceeds the equivalent of 600,000 rubles in a calendar year. For failure to provide information, a fine of 50,000 rubles is provided, and for providing illegal information-10% of the amount received or debited, depending on which of them turns out to be the largest. For non-payment of tax on cryptocurrency income, you will have to pay a fine of 40% of the amount of unpaid tax. For the first time, you must report ownership of crypto assets no later than April 30, 2022.

It also provides for administrative fines for organizing illegal traffic in CFA and violating the rules for making transactions with crypto assets: from 50,000 to 500,000 rubles for citizens and up to 2 million rubles for legal entities. When using cryptocurrency as a means of payment for payments for goods, works or services, the fine will be up to 200,000 rubles and 1 million rubles, respectively, and the funds received will be subject to withdrawal.

On its website, the Ministry of Finance notes that the draft laws will bring the regulation of digital assets in Russia in line with the recommendations of the financial action task Force on money laundering (FATF). This, in turn, will help reduce the number of operations related to money laundering, according to the authors of the initiative.

To implement this task, amendments were prepared to the" anti-wash " law No. 115-FZ. According to the proposed changes, the subjects of this law, in particular miners, will be required to send information about operations with digital currencies to Rosfinmonitoring.

"It provides for judicial protection of holders of digital currency, if the owner informs both about the fact of possession of the currency and operations with it. The corresponding protection procedure is provided for in the Tax code, " the report says.