A decree issued yesterday by Nicolas Maduro’s government states that those conducting business in Venezuela involving either cryptocurrency or foreign fiat money must also pay taxes on that business using cryptocurrency or foreign fiat money, respectively.
Specifically, article one of the decree in question – number 3,719, of gazette number 6,420 – states that:
The taxpayers who carry out transactions […] authorized by the Law […] in foreign currency or cryptocurrency […] which constitute taxable events generating national taxes, must determine and pay obligations in foreign currency or cryptocurrencies
Exceptions to this stipulation, according to article two, include an exemption for securities traded on the national stock market, and on the “export of goods and services, carried out by bodies or public entities.”
The plan to accept cryptos is not fleshed-out yet, however, and currently seems to be only an aspiration of this particular issue of the gazette. Article five describes that the country’s agency responsible for regulating banking, the SUBEDAN, will in future “dictate the regulatory norms of the adjustments that must be carried out by the institutions that make up the banking sector for the execution of this decree.”
Which Crypto?
Notably, the decree does not mention which particular cryptoasset(s) are usable for paying taxes. There is no mention anywhere in the decree of the country’s national crypto, the Petro (PTR), a ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum network.
CryptoGlobe recently reported on Venezuela’s stated intention to (eventually) conduct its hydrocarbon trade using only the Petro. This was a noteworthy decision because the US has sanctioned all use of PTR or any trade conducted using it.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak recently expressed uncertainty about conducting trade with Venezuela using the Petro, after Maduro traveled to Russia in an effort to foster non-US dollar dominated trade arrangements.
Russia is also subject to US and US-backed sanctions, and is also considering its own implementation of a national cryptocurrency to conduct Eurasian trade.
President Maduro is set to begin his second term of office tomorrow. Latin American politics are increasingly heading to the right, and the regional Lima Group has refused to recognize Maduro’s legitimacy to occupy his office.
