France stablecoin-swap tax passes Assembly floor 38

At a glance

Deputies adopted amendment I-3898 to the 2027 finance bill on Friday 16 Oct by 38 votes to 37, with 25 abstentions, according to the Assembly’s record of public vote no. 8836. Only 100 deputies took part.
The whole revenue part of the bill goes to a solemn vote on Tuesday 20 Oct, after Questions to the Government, and then to the Senate. The government can still drop the measure later in the process.

The amendment, tabled by Nicolas Sansu and other deputies of the Democratic and Republican Left (GDR) group, would end the tax deferral that currently applies when a holder swaps crypto-assets for e-money tokens as defined in the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the text shows.

What the text does

Today, swapping one crypto-asset for another is not a taxable event in France; tax falls due when the holder sells for euros or buys goods. Under I-3898, a swap that ends in e-money tokens, the MiCA category that covers single-currency stablecoins such as USDC and EURC, would be taxed like a sale from 1 Jan 2027. Outlets including Cryptoast and Journal du Coin put the applicable flat tax at 31.4%.

The text also changes how gains are counted. Instead of France’s current whole-portfolio formula, the gain would be the sale price minus the acquisition cost of the specific crypto-assets sold, using a weighted average cost where the same asset was bought at different prices. For holdings bought before 2027, taxpayers would choose, irrevocably, between documented per-asset costs and spreading their portfolio’s total cost at 31 Dec 2026 across assets in proportion to value (our translation of the amendment).

What the government and critics say

The government asked for withdrawal. “As things stand, implementing this measure would be too complex,” public accounts minister David Amiel told deputies. “That is why I am asking you to withdraw these amendments; failing that, my opinion will be unfavourable,” according to the official record of the sitting (our translation). The finance committee’s rapporteur général, Philippe Juvin, noted that the committee had adopted it but said he personally considered the deferral justified given crypto’s volatility.

The vote split along the left. La France insoumise (12), the Socialists (9), the Ecologists (8) and GDR (3) voted for, joined by four Les Démocrates (MoDem) deputies and one each from Ensemble pour la République and Horizons. Rassemblement National cast 10 votes against and 25 abstentions. Olivia Grégoire, recorded as voting for, later said she had meant to vote against, the vote record shows.

Minutes later, a ten-year carry-forward for crypto losses tabled by Gabriel Attal and other Ensemble pour la République deputies, amendment I-3653, was rejected by 75 votes to 18, according to NosParlementaires.

As CryptoWatchDesk reported on 10 Oct, the finance committee first backed the swap tax and a crypto exit tax before rejecting the bill’s revenue part, which sent the floor debate back to the government’s text (committee vote). We have not seen a floor vote on the exit tax.

What happens next

The solemn vote on the whole revenue part is set for Tuesday 20 Oct after Questions to the Government, usually from 15:00 Paris time (13:00 UTC), under the Assembly’s budget timetable. Last year that vote failed by 404 to 1, franceinfo noted, and in November 2024 a rejected revenue part went to the Senate without the deputies’ amendments, Journal du Coin recalled. If the text survives, senators can remove the amendment, and a government using Article 49.3 can choose which amendments to keep.

This is a news report on proposed legislation, not tax advice.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.