Russian Tax Body Suggests Allowing Crypto Pay in Trade Deals, Digital Ruble May Be Ready by 2023

cryptonews.com:

The Russian tax agency reportedly wants to allow companies involved in cross-border trade to accept crypto as a form of payment – and pay foreign exporters in cryptoassets. And the Central Bank has claimed that its digital ruble could be ready as soon as next year.

Izvestia claimed it had seen written comments submitted by the Federal Tax Service (FNS) in response to the Ministry of Finance’s draft crypto law – which suggests regulating the industry, placing caps on retail investors’ annual spending on crypto, and policing (as well as taxing) miners.

Per the report, the FNS suggested that a legal exception be made to a key provision in the draft law, which would outlaw the use of crypto to pay for goods and services. But the FNS suggested that businesses be exempted from the law and added the following draft clause:

“Legal entities will be allowed to pay for goods, work, services under foreign trade contracts and receive proceeds from foreign entities in digital currencies.”

“Digital currencies” is just one of the many umbrella terms used by Russian ministries and lawmakers to refer to cryptoassets.

The report claimed that the Ministry of Finance “partially supports” the proposal, and has indicated that it would require further elaboration, discussion and – possibly – legislative clarification.

Experts were quoted as stating that the implementation of the proposal could improve trade with “Russia-friendly countries in which cryptocurrencies are recognized as legal tender.” At present, that list is vanishingly thin, but it certainly seems to be the case that some international traders have chosen to evade Washington-led sanctions by paying for goods in crypto. For instance, Venezuela appears to have amassed a “stash” of bitcoin