The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, reportedly granted approval for a value-added tax (VAT) exemption bill for crypto assets in the Russian Federation. 

Specifically, a few more services of virtual asset exchanges will also receive the exemption, as revealed by state-run news service RIA Novosti. 

Furthermore, the bill reportedly set up income tax rates of 13% for Russian exchanges on the first 5 million rubles (approximately U$93,000) of the yearly taxable base, 15% on amounts exceeding that threshold, and 15% throughout the board for foreign exchange operators. 

The existing tax rate applied for establishments is 20%.

The taxation of crypto assets under the bill is similar to securities taxes, per RIA Novosti reports. The authority also stated in the bill that a separate tax procedure for digital assets plays a vital role in the design of a digital economy with high effectiveness and competitiveness.

Russia has been adopting a much less skeptical attitude when it comes to cryptocurrency since the heat from Western economic sanctions as a consequence of its invasion of Ukraine is significantly increasing. 

Top-tier Russia-based banks have been barred from the SWIFT network, with G7 nations this week issued a prohibition regarding the purchase of freshly mined or refined Russian gold. 

Said initiatives, as well as a variety of different other sanctions, reportedly resulted in Russia’s reported default on foreign debt servicing Monday.

Russia’s Sber bank is gearing toward the introduction of a stablecoin, and Russian Central Bank’s first deputy chair Olga Skorobogatova stated via an interview that runs testing of a digital ruble will be scheduled for April 2023 from the original 2024 timeline. 

A trial project with the involvement of 12 Russian banks is in the works.