Declare Cryptocurrency in Russia: Who is Required and Who Will Be Required, 2026/02/16 00:00:01

Are you buying or selling cryptocurrencies in Russia? Are you profiting from exchange rate differences? Do you hold some stablecoins as a reserve? Perhaps you are mining? The tax authorities are currently interested in nearly everyone. But when exactly is a crypto investor required to report to them?

In Russia, income from cryptocurrency investments and sales must be declared if a profit was made by the end of the year. However, few individuals actually do this, as noted by Bits.media lawyer and founder of the Cartesius legal agency, Ignat Likhunov.

What exactly needs to be taxed

It is necessary to inform the tax authorities about profits when cryptocurrency is sold for rubles or other fiat currencies. Income from mining must be declared at the moment the coins are received in the wallet.

Taxes are not levied on the total sale amount but rather on the difference between the sale income and the documented expenses incurred to acquire the asset. Typical scenarios are described by crypto lawyer Denis Mayasov:

Purchased cryptocurrency for rubles — no tax applies (this constitutes the formation of expenses/cost).

Sold cryptocurrency for rubles — tax on the final result (income minus documented expenses).

Received cryptocurrency from mining — income arises on the date when the right to dispose of the coins is established, based on the market rate.

Exchanged BTC for USDT / ETH for BTC — that is, one asset was used to acquire another; tax is calculated on the “sold/given” asset.

Selling one cryptocurrency for another or exchanging it should not formally be subject to taxation, clarifies Ignat Likhunov from Cartesius.

“However, due to the lack of official clarifications, such transactions may carry tax risks, as there is a procedure for declaring acquired property,” explains the expert from Bits.media.

Denis Mayasov lists what documents to provide to substantiate transactions, what to submit to the tax authorities, and what to prepare in case of property disputes:

• purchase agreements/invoices/acts (if available);

• exchange/wallet statements (transaction history);

• bank statements for deposits/withdrawals;

• calculation of the tax base (table: date, asset, quantity, price, income, expense, total).

When to pay taxes

The declaration for the previous year using form 3-NDFL must be submitted by April 30 of this year (online submission is available), and the tax must be paid by July 15.

A special scale applies for income from sales: 13% on amounts up to 2.4 million rubles per year and 15% on any excess. Income from mining is taxed on a progressive scale, ranging from 13% to 22%.

Failure to declare income and pay taxes may result in a fine of 40% of the unpaid tax amount, warns the founder of the legal firm GMT Legal, Andrey Tugarin.

“If you earned from cryptocurrency, sold it, received rubles, declared the income, and paid 13-15%. You can reduce the tax base by proving the expenses incurred in acquiring the cryptocurrency,” adds the lawyer.

Legal dispute over crypto declaration

This year, the Constitutional Court of Russia was compelled to clarify whether a cryptocurrency owner has rights to it as property if they have not declared it to the tax authorities. The court ruled that they do, as cryptocurrency is considered property, and the right to ownership and protection of that property in court is enshrined in the Constitution.

However, the constitutional judges noted in the margins of their ruling that esteemed Russian legislators need to amend existing regulations. Among the readers of Bits.media, a question arose: does this indicate a desire from authorities to require all cryptocurrency holders, not just miners, to declare their digital assets?

Lawyer Denis Mayasov clarifies: it is important to distinguish between declaring income and “declaring ownership.” The declaration of income is straightforward: if you sold cryptocurrency at a profit, you declare the profit and pay the tax. The Constitutional Court intervened in a situation where miners and “crypto infrastructure operators” are legally obligated to notify the tax authorities about the appearance of cryptocurrency in their wallets, but not private individuals.

What will change for cryptocurrency holders

What might change if legislators heed the Constitutional Court’s advice and address the gap? Denis Mayasov believes that all cryptocurrency owners will then:

• have an obligation to report ownership/facts of transactions;

• need to comply with requirements for proving the origin of assets;

• face consequences for failing to provide information (fines/restrictions).

The crypto lawyer suggests that if lawmakers choose to act, individuals who regularly buy and sell cryptocurrency may face reclassification of their activities as entrepreneurial. While “occasional transactions” do not equate to business, systematic and uniform activities pose a risk zone.

“The consequences of being recognized as a business would no longer be a matter of 3-NDFL ‘as an individual,’ but rather a matter of conducting business, accounting, and potential tax and compliance claims,” explains the expert from Bits.media.

Lawyer Ignat Likhunov believes that the tax rate for traders could even rise from 13-15% to 25% — currently the rate for corporate profit tax.

However, GMT Legal founder Andrey Tugarin is convinced that no one intends to equate crypto investors with legal entities; the discussion will simply revolve around how to inform authorities about their digital assets.

Miners (individuals, sole proprietors, and legal entities) currently report their cryptocurrency wallets and mined cryptocurrency through their taxpayer personal account. This clear method may also be proposed for crypto traders/holders.

Evading taxes will likely become more challenging. Authorities may receive notifications about cryptocurrency ownership from exchanges, brokers, or other entities, says Tugarin. This year, the expert from Bits.media reminds us, these entities will be required to obtain licenses in Russia.