Decree No. 8 "On the Development of the Digital Economy" was signed in Belarus on December 22, 2017.

All the IT community of the country was waiting for this document and finally the day X came.

Background

The High-Tech Park (HTP) was established in Belarus in 2005, where IT companies could become residents. Membership in HTP gives substantial tax benefits (almost all taxes are canceled if the company became a resident of the Park). This has yielded very good results, the export of IT services from Belarus has grown significantly and world has heard about such companies as Wargaming, EPAM, Viber, MSQRD and many others (yes, all of this was created by Belarusians).

In early 2017 it became clear that the HTP regime needs to be updated for further growth. It was decided when blockchain became popular world-wide. Therefore, it was decided to include provisions on cryptocurrencies, tokens and other related stuff in the HTP update. All community was involved in drafting the document: government agencies, legal advisors, auditors, IT companies, etc. In general document was prepared, as it said, by "the whole world" (this is a purely personal opinion, some categorically disagree with this). At the output it was not just an upgrade of the HTP regime but more global thing.

Decree No. 8 is devoted not only to the blockchain (there are many other interesting norms in it), but in this post we will focus only on blockchain, tokens (hereinafter tokens also include cryptocurrencies) and everything connected with it.

Decree and Blockchain

So, the basic provisions of the Decree related to blockchain are as follows:

• Companies that deal with blockсhain technologies, mining, as well as crypto-exchangers, crypto-funds, etc. will be able to become residents of the HTP and get all the benefits of the HTP;

• All legal entities are allowed to own and make transactions with tokens (including ICO), transactions can be made through the above-mentioned HTP residents;

• A legal entity that sells its own token is obliged to satisfy the obligations that this token causes. Refusal is not allowed and is invalid (i.e. investors are legally protected when buying tokens);

• All individuals are allowed to own and make transactions with tokens (not necessarily through the above-mentioned HTP residents);

• Tax benefits are provided for transactions with tokens until 2023, in particular, mining and operations with tokens are not subject to VAT and corporate income tax, individuals' income from mining and operations with tokens are not subject to income tax;

• Legislation on securities, securitization, licensing of exchange activities is not applied to token activities of HTP residents;

• HTP residents are allowed to enter into transactions using smart contracts;

• Specifics for accounting of tokens and related assets are established.

Of course, various details and legal nuances are much larger than the list above (the Decree with all appendices includes more than 50 pages). But the brief essence of the document is something like this.

What’s Next?

The decree will come into force within 3 months (i.e. in March 2018). It seems that multiple implementing regulations of state bodies will be adopted by this date, which will clarify how the provisions of the Decree will work in practice.

Therefore, we are waiting for a lot of interesting things in the near future in Belarus.