Next year, fines may appear in Russia for paying for services and goods with cryptocurrencies. The amounts of fines will be from 100,000 rubles for individuals and from 700,000 rubles for legal entities.

As the head of the State Duma Committee on the financial market Anatoly Aksakov told Izvestia, the bill on the introduction of fines for the use of cryptocurrencies for payment of goods and services will be considered in the fall.

He recalled that in the framework of the Federal Law on Digital Financial Assets, which came into force in 2021, the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services is already prohibited. It seems that the government decided to ensure the implementation of the law with the help of fines. Physics will pay from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles, and legal entities will be prescribed from 700,000 rubles to 1 million rubles.

The publication notes that after the introduction of Law No. 259-FZ, cryptocurrency payments in Russia went into the “gray zone”. However, still digital assets are used to pay foreign services, get salaries, pay for educational services, and so on. Especially often cryptocurrencies are used to pay for video games and entertainment digital services.

“It is precisely this hidden practice that a new bill on fines is aimed. The state intends to close the loophole when there is a ban, but there is no direct responsibility for its violation, making such operations economically risky, ”said Irina Kuyantseva, adviser to corporate law and M&A Litigation.

As emphasized by the Scientific Director of the Center for Conjunctural Research by the HSE, Georgy Ostapkovich, when paying for goods online in a foreign store, the user may fall under the blow. According to him, this is the unlawful mechanism that lawyers should deal with, and in its purest form, the care of sales taxes.

Earlier, the Ministry of Labor warned about the illegality of the use of cryptocurrencies to pay salaries to employees.