Deputies of the State Duma almost unanimously adopted in the first reading the draft laws “On digital of financial assets”, “On attracting of investments using investment platforms” and “digital rights”. This body of laws regulate digital money, crowdfunding, ICO and partly industrial mining.
The draft law “On digital of financial assets”, in particular, introduces a legislative definition of smart contracts, tokens and cryptocurrencies, and also establishes the procedure for the issue of the tokens and the contents of required documents. All digital of financial assets are considered property and, under the bill, are not legal tender on the territory of Russia.
In turn, the future law “On foreign investments using investment platforms” establishes the contractual relationship between investment platforms and the commercial organizations or individual entrepreneurs, as well as model contents of such documents and their entry in a special registry.
The text of the bill “About digital rights,” also provides the concept of “token” and “cryptocurrency”. It was originally introduced by the speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and the head of the Committee on state building Pavel Krasheninnikov as amendments to the Civil code of the Russian Federation to compensate for the lack of special laws. It is unknown whether the amendments ratified in the third reading after approval of two full bills.
During the discussion of the provisions of the documents, suggestions were made for further additions. Thus, the Chairman of the Expert Council on legislative support fintehnology under the state Duma Martin Shakkum during the discussion of the law “On digital of financial assets” proposed to amend the law provision for the creation of cryptocurrency exchanges, activities which would allow to exchange cryptocurrency for Fiat.
In addition, the Chairman of the Committee on financial market Anatoly Aksakov noted that it is necessary to include miners in the register on:
“We believe that miners should be included in the FTS register and pay taxes. For the legalization of business, it is my opinion, at first, maybe two to three years a moratorium on taxation… if it’s a small business, small volumes, — the simplified system of taxation. Big business — ordinary taxation, income tax, maybe VAT”.
The deadline for the submission of amendments to the draft law before the second reading scheduled for June 4; with the exception of changes to the civil code of the Russian Federation — for their final date scheduled for June 20. Recall that by order of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the case laws on cryptocurrencies, mining and ICO must take by July 1, 2018.
