In Russia, P2P transactions with cryptocurrency have been equated to entrepreneurship. Experts' opinions

The Arbitration Court of the Rostov Region recognized P2P transactions for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies as entrepreneurial activity. This was reported by lawyers from the company Nextons.

The defendant has been an individual entrepreneur under the simplified taxation system since 2020 (USN). In the declaration for 2022, he reported an income of 800,000 rubles. However, the Federal Tax Service requested information from banks and established that a total of 143 million rubles was deposited into the entrepreneur's accounts in 2022.

After meeting with representatives of the agency, the citizen reported in the updated declaration income of 92.4 million rubles from the sale of cryptocurrency and claimed a property tax deduction of 92.6 million rubles. He did not submit supporting documents.

The tax authorities have determined that by buying and selling cryptocurrencies, the owner of the individual entrepreneur (IE) was effectively conducting business activities. Accordingly, all his income is subject to simplified taxation.

Among the claims, the systematic nature and scale of the operations were noted — 92 bank cards, involvement of third parties, and the use of foreign accounts. Testimonies from witnesses and the interrogation of the entrepreneur himself were used as evidence, where he described the scheme of purchasing cryptocurrency in Turkey and selling it in the Russian Federation through P2P.

The citizen claimed in his defense that such operations do not require registration as an individual entrepreneur, and that income from the sale of digital currencies is not subject to inclusion in the simplified tax system. He also pointed out the absence of a separate OKVED for trading these assets.

The court sided with the tax authorities. According to the ruling, even in the absence of special regulations, cryptocurrency is considered property, and transactions involving it are subject to taxation, while systematic trading of digital assets with the status of an individual entrepreneur is regarded as entrepreneurial activity.

The respondent was also informed that it is impossible to combine the simplified and general taxation systems, and the absence of a separate OKVED does not exempt obligations to the Federal Tax Service.

As a result, the tax authority assessed an additional 5.46 million rubles in taxes under the simplified tax system and 273,000 rubles in fines.

Lawful decision, but incorrect line of defense

In a comment to ForkLog, the surveyed experts acknowledged the fairness of the court's decision. The founder of the legal agency Cartesius, Ignat Likunov, pointed out that the court referred to the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

"If you have become an individual entrepreneur, then the tax authorities have the right to recognize all your transactions on personal accounts as entrepreneurial if there is a pattern and the aim of making a profit, combined with the non-use of resold property for personal purposes," he noted.

According to Likhunov, the court confirmed that in the Russian Federation, taxation on the sale of cryptocurrencies is carried out according to the rules for the sale of other property. In addition, the entrepreneur on the simplified taxation system cannot count on deductions for personal income tax.

"This court decision, as well as our legislation in general (Civil and Tax Codes), is essentially applicable to any P2P operator, exchange, or cryptocurrency exchange. In their activities, one can formally find tax arrears or illegal entrepreneurial activity. The other matter is that there is actually no practice of prosecuting ordinary cryptocurrency users, as here; these are isolated cases," noted the lawyer.

CEO Exved Sergey Mendeleev also agreed with the legality of the court's decision.

"From the state's perspective, such activities are undoubtedly entrepreneurial. Is there regularity? Yes, there is. Is there a clear income being generated? Absolutely. And whether you are trading crypto or pine cones is a secondary issue. Moreover, it doesn't matter if you are an individual entrepreneur or not. The tax authorities can easily impose additional charges on a regular individual," he explained.

The expert believes that the defendant should have fought not against the essence of the charges, but for the amount of the tax reassessment.

"Okay, let it be entrepreneurship. Here are all my statements, I bought crypto for 990,000, sold for 1 million. My income is 10,000, so take the tax from that, not from the turnover. In this part, of course, one cannot agree with the decision," concluded Mendeleev.

Let us remind you that in November 2024, the law on cryptocurrency taxation came into force in the Russian Federation. The latter is recognized as property. The tax base is determined as the excess of the asset's value over the costs of its purchase or mining.

Individuals selling cryptocurrency are required to pay personal income tax at a rate of 13-15%. Legal entities are subject to a 25% profit tax.