The government wants to change the DFA tax scheme by including the cost of purchasing digital rights as part of the taxpayer's expenses

A bill has been introduced to the State Duma to change the taxation scheme for digital financial assets (DFAs). TASS writes about this with reference to a legislative document.

According to its details, officials propose to include in taxpayer expenses the costs of acquiring digital rights (by which we mean both DFA and utilitarian digital rights). The document states that when selling digital financial assets received as a gift or inheritance, the taxpayer can reduce the tax deduction “at the expense of the costs of their acquisition by the testator or donor.” Changes are proposed to be made to Article 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

In June 2022, the State Duma adopted a law on taxation of CFAs. Now the authorities levy a tax of 13% on income from the sale of DFAs. If the annual tax amount exceeds ₽5 million, then the rate increases to 15% of the excess amount. For foreign investors the default tax is 15%. At the same time, DFA issuers are exempt from paying value added tax (VAT).

So far, DFAs for the most part remain “exotic” for Russian investors rather than an attractive alternative to securities. As of the end of April, DFAs issued in the Russian Federation amounted to only ₽2.2 billion (~$27 million). This is still not enough to compete even with the dubious tokens on the CoinMarketCap list, whose market capitalization is several times higher.

  • The head of the Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, previously admitted that he “expected more” from the CFA against the backdrop of a weak issue volume. However, he still believes that the DFA market still has a chance. According to the deputy, DFAs will become more active with the launch of the digital ruble.

  • The final timing of the launch of the digital ruble remains unclear, with authorities giving conflicting timelines. The head of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Anton Siluanov, claims that the digital ruble will appear before the end of 2023.

  • The Bank of Russia itself says that testing the digital version of the ruble alone will take several more years. It is unclear when the actual digital ruble will be finally ready for use in everyday payments.