New Committee Established in Brazil to Determine Local Regulations for Cryptocurrency

• Brazil’s government will work to establish regulations that cover cryptocurrency.
• The local IRS released new tax rules in May 2019 to show investors when they need to report their cryptocurrency-related revenue.

The regulation of cryptocurrency has yet to be established in Brazil, putting it behind other countries that have already adopted laws that govern the technology supporting it. According to reports from Cointelegraph Brasil on May 31^st, the President of the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil has issued an order that will require new regulations to be established for cryptocurrency in the country.

The legislative body, along with the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil, is a collective of representatives that are collected every four years. Within the Chamber, the representatives are responsible for discussing and approving proposals as they deal with social and economic areas like education, health, and transport.

Rodrigo Maia, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, requested for a special commission to be established on May 30^th, which would be forming an opinion on bill 2303/2015. The bill will ultimately regulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that operate in Brazil. According to the terms set forth, this commission will include 34 members, which is required by the House Rules of Procedure. Two projects for cryptocurrency regulation were already presented by Federal Deputy Aureo Ribeiro.

Fernando Furlan, the president for the Brazilian Association of Crypto and Blockchain (ABCB), spoke with other representatives within the industry this week. Other entities included in these meetings were the Financial Activities Control Council, the Internal Revenue Service, The Central Bank of Brazil, and the Attorney General’s Office. During this meeting, the goal was to establish the rules of the Financial Action Task Force over these assets, while recognizing the needs of the Brazil sector of the crypto industry.

At the G20 finance ministers meeting in June in Japan, the rules determined will officially be presented to the public. However, those new rules will give the local companies until 2021 to comply, though there are not rules set yet for the companies that do not conform to the local standards.

The Brazilian Internal Revenue Service created new tax rules this month that outline the way that cryptocurrencies will need to be addressed. The rules state that any transaction involving over 30,000 reals will have to be reported monthly. These reports need to include if the cryptocurrency transactions occurred on Brazilian exchanges, between two traders, or outside of the country.