Three August orders issued by Russia’s Federal Tax Service expand the scope of statements for digital ruble accounts. Starting July 1, 2027, the agency will be able to request the IP and MAC addresses, phone number, and SIM card identifier of the device used to carry out a transaction. The data will not be transmitted automatically for every payment. Instead, the agency will request it separately as part of a tax audit or debt collection process, following the same procedure already used for bank accounts.
Russia’s largest banks began giving customers broader access to the digital ruble in September. The digital ruble is Russia’s central bank digital currency: one digital ruble is equal to one regular ruble, payments are made through banking apps, and using it is voluntary.
The digital trail will allow the tax authorities to link accounts to devices and identify cases where a wallet is being used by someone other than the person it is registered to. The agency will be looking for hidden income, linked transfers, and signs of artificially splitting a business, such as when several formally separate individuals regularly make similar transactions from the same device.
A matching IP or MAC address does not by itself prove a violation. The same address may be shared by an office, public Wi-Fi network, or family members. Modern smartphones can use a different MAC address, a SIM card can be transferred to another person, and an account can be accessed without the owner’s knowledge. Such data is assessed together with the timing of transactions, the nature of the payments, and supporting documents.
A significant gap between declared income and the funds held in a digital wallet could become grounds for a tax audit. If the Federal Tax Service proves that taxes were not paid, the consequences may include additional tax assessments, interest, and fines, and in some cases, criminal liability.
The new fields in digital ruble statements expand the scope of transaction monitoring. Alongside the amount and parties to a transfer, the statement will now contain a device trail, making digital accounts more transparent to the Federal Tax Service than ordinary bank accounts, although some users had already associated the digital ruble with increased government control.