France’s National Assembly Finance Committee voted this week to approve two crypto tax amendments, one aimed at taxing swaps from crypto into stablecoins and another designed to extend the country’s exit tax to wealthy crypto holders who move abroad.
For now, though, the votes carry limited weight. On Friday, the committee rejected the entire revenue section of the budget by 31 votes to 3, sending the full Assembly back to the government’s original text without the crypto amendments.
Because of that, the committee-approved amendments do not automatically move forward into the text that lawmakers will debate. Their backers would have to table them again during the floor debate that opens on Oct. 13. Neither measure has become law, and both would still need to clear the rest of the legislative process.
Stablecoin swaps would be treated as taxable sales
The stablecoin amendment was filed by Nicolas Sansu of the left-wing GDR group with 16 co-signers. Its authors say it targets what they describe as a gap in current legislation. Under the rules now in force in France, swapping Bitcoin for a stablecoin does not trigger tax because gains are collected only when they are converted into regular money or spent.
The text applies to electronic money tokens as defined under MiCA, the European Union’s crypto framework. That category includes most stablecoins tied to a single official currency, such as the dollar or the euro. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, a swap into one of those tokens would count as a sale, and the gain would be measured against the holder’s original purchase price.
The amendment does not set a separate rate. Instead, it points to France’s flat tax, which rose to 31.4% on Jan. 1 after the 2026 social-security financing law increased the social-charge component from 17.2% to 18.6%. The authors say they are not creating a new burden, only applying existing law to a case that had been left out.
They also argue that stablecoins can function as ordinary investment vehicles because they can be used to pay crypto service providers or to buy other tokens. In their view, allowing tax deferral when an investor swaps into a stablecoin is not justified and lets gains avoid the flat tax.
Second amendment would extend the exit tax to crypto
A second amendment from Sansu would expand France’s exit tax to cover crypto assets. The exit tax applies to unrealized gains when a taxpayer moves their tax residence abroad.
Under the proposal, the rule would apply from Jan. 1, 2027, when a tax household’s combined crypto holdings exceed €800,000 and the taxpayer has been a French tax resident for at least six of the previous 10 years. The holdings counted under the threshold would include assets kept through custodians.
The threshold matches the one already used for shares, and the payment-deferral rules are borrowed from the stock regime. Crypto-to-crypto swaps with no cash component would not be treated as sales for exit-tax purposes.
Taxpayers would also need to attach a statement listing all crypto held on the date of the move, including assets held abroad and assets in self-custody, meaning wallets they control themselves rather than through an exchange.
The authors argue that directly held crypto can escape the exit tax today while shares of the same value do not. They also point to how easily digital assets can be moved across borders.
Loss carryforward amendment also passed committee
A separate amendment from Daniel Labaronne also won committee approval. It would allow investors to carry crypto losses forward for 10 years and use them to offset future gains, mirroring the treatment already available for stocks. Under current rules, unused crypto losses cannot be carried over.
Crypto taxes have appeared in earlier budget debates
In late October 2025, the Assembly adopted another crypto-inclusive tax measure at first reading. Lawmakers voted 163-150 for an amendment creating a 1% annual levy on what it called “unproductive” wealth above €2 million, grouping digital assets with gold and yachts.
Attorney Burçak Ünsal told Decrypt at the time that taxing early token holders was potentially “economically unjust.”
What comes next
Decrypt also noted that Coinbase said in October 2024 it would delist stablecoins that fail to comply with MiCA for European customers by Dec. 30, while directing users toward compliant tokens such as USDC and EURC.
The floor debate on the budget’s revenue section is set to begin on Oct. 13, and a formal vote is scheduled for Oct. 20. If the measures return during that process and survive, both the stablecoin tax rule and the crypto exit-tax rule would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.