Latam Insights: Colombian President Meets Blockchain Experts, Brazil Passes 15% Tax for Foreign Crypto Investments

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Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: the Colombian president met with a group of blockchain proponents, the Brazilian Senate passed a law taxing investments in foreign exchanges, and the Fintech Chamber proposed a tokenization framework in Argentina.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro Held a Meeting With Blockchain Experts

Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, recently met a group of blockchain experts to examine the possibilities of adopting this tech in state projects and its benefits.

Different blockchain proponents, including JAN3 CEO Samson Mow, JAN3 Marketing Director Raul Velasquez, JAN3 CMO Edwin Rivas, RSK Labs co-founder Diego Gutierrez, Bingx International Operations Consultant Cristian Quintero, and Tropykus co-founder Mauricio Tovar discussed the implementation of systems leveraging this tech in health billing and land registry applications.

Petro also hinted at utilizing bitcoin to finance free work cooperatives in popular areas, stating that these tools “can be promising for the prosperity of the people.”

Brazilian Senate Passes Law Taxing Cryptocurrency Purchases Made Using Foreign Exchanges

The Brazilian Senate approved Bill 4,173/2023, which defines certain taxes that must be applied to Brazilians investing abroad, including cryptocurrency purchases. The proposal, now pending presidential sanction, modifies the current cryptocurrency income tax gain rate, taking it to 15% for any amount of income perceived.

However, the bill is still somewhat broad in the eyes of experts, who still have doubts about the bill’s applicability and which exchanges will be considered offshore.

Maria Carolina Sampaio, head of the tax area and partner at GVM Advogados, told O Globo that the bill is broad and unclear, given that it does not define which assets will be taxed and does not define what constitutes a foreign investment.

Fintech Chamber Presents Tokenization Regulation Proposal in Argentina

The Argentine Fintech Chamber revealed a set of proposals focused on regulating the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) in the country. In a document presented to Argentine President Javier Milei, the organization proposes to adopt a limited sandbox to test the functionalities of the tokenization approach for several use cases.

In the same way, the chamber proposes to include the processes to confirm that the issued tokens are linked to the promoted assets, letting issuers know the taxes and processes needed to complete the tokenization of these assets. This would include allowing notaries to provide physical examination services for these assets.

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