French committee backs crypto taxes, then rejects budget revenue section

France's National Assembly Finance Committee approved amendments this week to tax crypto holders who swap into stablecoins and impose an exit tax on wealthy holders moving abroad. Stablecoins are tokens tied to a single official currency, such as the dollar or the euro. However, the committee rejected the budget's entire revenue section on Friday by 31 votes to 3. The full Assembly will start from the government's original text, without the crypto amendments. Backers would have to submit the amendments again for the floor debate beginning Oct. 13. Neither measure is law, and both still require approval through the remaining legislative process. A formal vote on the budget's revenue section is scheduled for Oct. 20.

Nicolas Sansu of the left-wing GDR group and 16 co-signers filed the stablecoin amendment to address what the authors call a gap in legislation. France currently does not tax swaps from Bitcoin into stablecoins because gains are taxed only when converted into regular money or spent. The amendment covers electronic money tokens defined under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, a category including most single-currency stablecoins. Swaps into those tokens would count as sales from Jan. 1, 2027, with gains measured against the holder's original purchase cost.

The amendment specifies no tax rate and instead relies on France's existing flat tax. France's flat tax rose to 31.4% on Jan. 1 after the 2026 social-security financing law increased the social-charge portion from 17.2% to 18.6%. The amendment's authors insist the proposal creates no new burden and only applies existing law to a previously excluded case. The authors argue that stablecoins can be ordinary investment vehicles because holders can use stablecoins for payments at crypto service providers or to buy other tokens. The authors argue that deferring tax on swaps into stablecoins is unjustified and allows gains to escape the flat tax.

Sansu's second amendment would extend France's exit tax to crypto, taxing unrealized gains when taxpayers move their tax residence abroad. The proposal would cover moves from Jan. 1, 2027, when a tax household's combined crypto holdings, including custodial holdings, exceed €800,000. Eligible taxpayers must have been French tax residents for at least six of the previous 10 years. The €800,000 threshold matches the existing threshold for shares. The proposal borrows payment deferral rules from the stock regime.

Cryptocurrency swaps without a cash component would not count as sales for exit-tax purposes. Taxpayers would have to attach a statement listing all crypto held on the moving date, including assets held abroad or in self-custody. Self-custody means wallets that holders control without an exchange. The amendment's authors argue that directly held crypto currently escapes exit tax while shares of the same value do not. The authors also highlight how easily digital assets can move across borders.

The committee also approved Daniel Labaronne's amendment allowing investors to carry crypto losses forward for 10 years to offset future gains. Investors can already carry stock losses forward, but unused crypto losses currently cannot be carried over.

The Assembly adopted another crypto-inclusive tax in first reading in late October 2025 by a vote of 163 to 150. That amendment would create a 1% annual levy on "unproductive" wealth above €2 million, including digital assets, gold and yachts. Attorney Burçak Ünsal said taxing early token holders was potentially "economically unjust."

Coinbase said in October 2024 that Coinbase would delist stablecoins that did not comply with MiCA for European customers by Dec. 30. Coinbase directed those customers toward compliant coins such as USDC and EURC. The proposed stablecoin swap and crypto exit-tax rules would apply from Jan. 1, 2027, if the measures return and survive the legislative process.