Companies Hosting Foreign Crypto Miners in Russia Set to Face VAT Charges

Russian crypto mining firms that lease rigs and data centers to overseas firms and pools will soon have to pay VAT under new government proposals.

The rules will also apply to energy firms that provide electrical capacity to mining pools and companies headquartered outside Russia.

Mining Crypto: VAT Charges Incoming in Russia

Per the Russian media outlet RBC , the plans are the brainchild of the Ministry of Finance. The ministry said it wants to clarify the procedures for taxing the lease of crypto mining equipment.

The Bitcoin network hashrate over the past three years. (Source: Blockchain.com)

It also said that it wants to create tax rules for firms that provide “computing power for mining” to non-Russian clients.

The VAT charges will likely apply to real-time, monthly, or annual leasing bills and transactions. The ministry said that a lack of “clear explanations” in current legislation has left providers unsure about how to declare their activities.

New Charges for ‘Mining Infrastructure Operators’

A Russian law that came into force in January this year obliges all industrial crypto miners and “mining infrastructure operators (MIOs)” to sign up to a national register.

The register is managed by the Federal Tax Service (FTS) , which is still finalizing plans to tax crypto miners and MIOs on their annual profits.

Per the most recent FTS data, published on April 1, 116 MIOs have signed up to the register, along with 606 industrial miners.

Both the FTS and other government organs believe that many more companies are still yet to sign up to the register.

Some have suggested introducing criminal liability for companies that fail to comply with the new law.

But the FTS has urged leniency and suggested that some firms still need time to adjust to the new system.

MIO firms typically provide space, equipment, and other facilities for mining crypto in custom-made data processing centers.

These centers range from small buildings fitted with cooling equipment and fans to vast, factory-sized facilities capable of housing hundreds of Bitcoin mining rigs.

Crypto Mining Hotels Still Popular

Small-scale crypto mining “hotels” also operate nationwide in Russia, with smaller centers offering total capacities of around 14 MW, and larger “hotels” boasting capacities of 100 MW and above.

Investors and mining pools from all over the world have paid Russian MIOs to house their mining rigs, although some pulled out of the nation following the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Regardless, many non-Russian pools and investors remain active in Russia, keen to access cheap electricity and relatively low overheads.

The Industrial Mining Association (a collective comprising Russia’s biggest industrial miners) claimed in 2024 that if Moscow legalized mining, it could expect to reap tax revenues of around 50 billion rubles ($612 million) per year.

The veracity of these claims will soon be put to the test. Some miners filed declarations on the April 25 tax deadline, meaning the world could soon learn how much tax Russia’s biggest crypto miners are now paying on their profits.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. (Source: CNN/YouTube/Screenshot)

Minister Wants Crypto Miners to Help Russian Firms Avoid Western Sanctions

Lawmakers have taken a guarded stance. Anton Tkachev, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma’s IT Committee, said that April 25 was the industry’s first real tax test.

The Russian Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, stated early last year that his ministry did not expect crypto mining tax incomes to be “significant.”

Siluanov instead suggested that Moscow will look to use the tokens produced from mining as settlement tools in foreign trade deals.

Russian firms are increasingly looking to make crypto-powered cross-border trade deals using Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as they remain frozen out of USD-denominated trade.