How to formalize the payment of remuneration in cryptocurrency in order to comply with labor legislation?
Territorial jurisdiction:
Russia
Short answer:
There is no way — remuneration under an employment contract cannot be paid in cryptocurrency.
Denis Polyakov
Head of Digital Economy practice at GMT Legal
Russian labor legislation (Article 131 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) obliges employers to pay wages in monetary form and exclusively in the currency of the Russian Federation — rubles. This rule applies to all employment relationships and does not allow substitution of monetary payments with other forms, including cryptocurrency. Therefore, there is no lawful procedure for remunerating employees in cryptocurrency within the framework of an employment contract. Attempts to circumvent this requirement, for example, by concluding a civil law contract with the same employee, may be regarded as evasion of labor legislation and entail legal consequences — ranging from fines to obligations to additionally calculate taxes and insurance contributions.