The government of Belarus has passed a new law to encourage cryptocurrency and blockchain companies to invest in the country. The incentive is a huge one: Zero taxes.
The law, a digital economy decree signed by President, Alexander Lukashenko, on December 22, aims to boost the use of technologies like blockchain and smart contracts and attract related business by offering significant tax incentives.
The decree focuses on the development of the High-Tech Park, a special economic zone that Belarus wants to serve as a hub for tech and financial startups. It also provisions that all companies working on smart contract development, token issuance, cryptocurrency trading and mining are legal and will be exempt from income taxes for the next five years.
The law states:
"Turnovers, profits (income, proceeds) from various operations with tokens are not recognized as taxable items until January 2023."
“Belarus will become the first government in the world that opens wide opportunities for the use of blockchain technology,” Lukashenko said in a statement and continued:
“We have every chance of becoming a regional center in this area.”