Romania, Latvia Mull Changes To Crypto Regulations, Taxes

cryptonews.com:

Romania and Latvia are among the latest European countries to launch analytical work on updating their respective regulations for the cryptoasset and blockchain industry. In Romania's case, this could potentially mean increasing national taxes on crypto-related operations and transactions. In Latvia, the government aims to intensify its anti-money laundering (AML) efforts. 

Representatives of the Romanian and Latvian Ministries of Finance told Cryptonews.com that the next regulatory steps to be taken at the national level will largely depend on the outcome of the ongoing discussions within the European Union of which both countries are member states.

A spokesperson for the Romanian Ministry of Finance said that the ministry is fully aware of the relevance of cryptoassets for the country’s fiscal system. At the same time, the government finds it is necessary to update the country’s tax regime.

“Having in view the dynamics and the challenges of this sector, the present [regulatory] framework needs revising and updating both from the point of view of fiscality and from the perspective of providing a definition for crypto assets,” the Ministry representative said.

To this end, they said, "specialists" within the Ministry are actively following the taxonomy implemented in other countries, taking part -- internally and within the international institutions -- in activities and the process of "analysis and identification of solutions for the implementation of the market of cryptocurrencies,” according to the spokesperson.

Updating Romanian fiscal rules, also with regards to cryptoassets, is on the government agenda, and it was communicated to the EU via the country’s National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, a document that