Brazil Requires Crypto Exchanges to Report on User Transactions to Authorities

The Department of Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB) has released new rules requiring that cryptocurrency exchanges inform the regulator about users' transactions in order to identify tax fraud, Cointelegraph Brazil reported on June 19.

The guidelines clarify how cryptocurrency trading platforms in Brazil should adopt new rules to report about the movements of users' crypto funds to the agency, and comply with the requirements of Normative Instruction 1.888/2019 published in May of this year.

Specifically, the agency requires that cryptocurrency exchanges operators based in Brazil provide information about all transactions carried out within their system, while those platforms based abroad must provide information "whenever the monthly value of the operations, alone or jointly, exceed 30,000.00 Brazilian reals [$7,750]."

Apart from the volume of a transaction, exchange operators must also provide data such as the nationality of the digital currency holder, their residence or domicile, registration number and the crypto assets used in a transaction.

Also according to the rules, all required information must be provided within a specified period, "until 23:59:59, Brasilia time, on the last calendar month subsequent to that in which the operation took place." The new rules will come into force in September 2019.

When the RFB announced that it was forming the requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges, Ismair Junior Couto, legal director of the Bitcoin Banco Group — Brazil's largest cryptocurrency broker — said the initiative had long been expected. He added that Bitcoin Banco had made provisions to provide the required information to authorities.

On May 31, Cointelegraph Brazil reported that the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil ordered a commission to be created to consider cryptocurrency regulation in the country. The commission will be tasked with regulating local activities around Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets, and is reportedly expected to be composed of 34 members in accordance with the House Rules of Procedure.