Russian Finance Ministry Wants to Tax Crypto Miners on Their Energy Use
Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...
The Russian Finance Ministry is likely to begin taxing crypto miners based on their electricity usage, rather than the value of their token sales, a top official has claimed.
The state-run news agency TASS reported that Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov said on September 18 that his ministry is “considering the launch of an excise tax on electricity for miners.”
The report claimed that the ministry is “in favor of” a crypto mining tax system that would “initially” take the form of an “indirect tax on the electricity miners consume.”
The media outlet RBC also suggested that the levy would be a stopgap solution before Moscow introduces a tax on miners’ profits.
“Our target remains taxation on profit. This is our long-term goal. We understand that this is, in principle, the correct structure – like everyone else, like any [form of] business. An intermediate system could be based on taxation in the form of excise taxes. However, so far, no decision has been made on this matter.”
Moscow appears to be unsure how to accurately crypto mining calculate profits, particularly if miners are creative with their accounting.
Chebeskov suggested that as miners may not disclose all of their wallets, it would be easier to “estimate their power consumption than the cost of the mined cryptoassets.”
The deputy minister added that the ministry expected MPs to approve a law on crypto mining tax by the end of the State Duma’s autumn session.
Late last year, lawmakers floated the idea of introducing a tax on crypto-related income, rather than profits.
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