In the battle to gain global leadership within the exploding cryptocurrency industry, Belarus is making its own bid to be considered a major hub.
Today, the country adopted a series of digital economic development rules to clearly legalize initial coin offerings, cryptocurrencies, and smart contracts. It did so by essentially creating a special class of laws for companies or entrepreneurs that are located at the Belarus Hi-Tech Park based in Minsk.
“Having adopted the Decree, Belarus becomes one of the world’s most comfortable jurisdictions for IT business,” said Vsevolod Yanchevsky, director of the park, in a statement. “Besides, the country is creating favorable conditions for the development of blockchain technology and businesses based on it.”
The Hi-Tech Park was created in 2005 to provide a liberalized zone to attract high-tech companies. Residents of the park pay no corporate taxes, and the personal income tax is only 9 percent.
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Now those residents will also be able to more aggressively move into blockchain investments. The new rules exempt individuals from personal taxes on “the incomes from mining, acquisition, and sale of digital tokens.” In addition: “Activities related to mining, creation, acquisition, and sale of digital tokens will remain tax-free until 2023.”
The country is also putting in place rules to protect ICO participants, as well as giving its blessing to smart contracts. The announcement comes just a few days after Estonia to the north disclosed its own ambitious agenda to become an ICO capital.
