Venezuela will be collecting fees from cryptocurrency transactions, with each one taxed up to 20% of its value.
With the region being crisis-ridden for over a decade, Venezuela chose digital assets and central bank digital currencies as a way to pull people out of poor economic situations.
In a discussion at the National Assembly, the Venezuelan government posted a bill on large financial transactions that include both fiat money and cryptocurrencies. The tax bill was posted on January 20th, and has been officially sanctioned after the second discussion, held on February 3rd.
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This will require everyone, including businesses and financial firms offering services via cryptocurrencies or any foreign money outside the Venezuelan banking system, to pay between 2% to 20% tax on each transaction.
Likewise, any cryptocurrencies or foreign money that are used inside the local banking system will be taxed a lot less - 2% to 8% per transaction.
This does not apply to Venezuela's fiat money or digital assets backed by the Venezuelan government.
According to a local news report, the whole idea of the tax is to bring the local CBDCs back to life since they have not had much success after the initial release.
However, some experts in the region claim that this will weaken the economy and eliminate the benefits of trading via cryptocurrencies. Venezuelan economic analysis firm Síntesis Financiera stated that this will be a "regressive tax that applies regardless of the taxpayer’s income", meaning that people with low income will be affected the most.
