Venezuela has announced that it will increase taxes for operations involving Bitcoin (BTC). This measure was published by the government on February 25 and is expected to take effect in 20 days. With this, from March 27, the new rules will begin to apply. The country is one of those that has given some support to Bitcoin in recent years, allowing its population to mine and even trade on a national exchange. In addition, it is possible to pay taxes with cryptocurrencies, in addition to various products and services. However, the new measure could alienate the population from public and decentralized cryptocurrencies on which the government of Nicolás Maduro depends.
With rates of up to 20%, Venezuela will increase taxes for Bitcoin operations
In late February 2022, the Venezuelan government published a tax reform law approved in the National Congress, approving new rules for taxes on large transactions in the country. Therefore, it was decided that individuals or legal entities that use cryptocurrencies or foreign national currencies will have to collect taxes on large financial transactions (IGTF). The rate of these taxes will be between 2% and 20% of the value of the transaction. The law will not only apply to those who work with cryptocurrencies or digital currency issued by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which in this case is the Petro, a currency supposedly backed by oil and created by the country a few years ago. This national currency in cryptocurrency format will be tied to the country’s new national minimum wage standard, showing that the government is struggling to impose its centralized technology on the local population, who have known about Bitcoin for years and already work with public cryptocurrencies and commonly decentralized.
Whoever fails to comply with the measure will have their assets confiscated, in addition to the possibility of imprisonment and a fine.
The new wording that will come into force in the country in the coming days makes it clear that whoever does not pay taxes correctly will be violating the Organic Tax Code of Venezuela. And in this case, the person or company may have assets confiscated, decreed arrest, fine, closure of company, disqualification from exercising the profession and suspension of industry or establishment. Even so, the regulations may be exempted for a part of the population, whether they are “subjects, segments or sectors of the country”, with rules and deadlines defined by the government and prior publication of the measure. The most expensive tax to be paid by taxpayers who use cryptocurrencies will be in the case of “Physical, legal and economic persons without legal personality, for payments made to persons qualified as special taxpayers, in currency other than that of legal tender in the country, or in cryptocurrencies or cryptoactives other than those issued by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, without the intermediation of financial entities”, implying that it penalizes transactions between people or P2P.
