An amendment to the 2027 budget would trigger taxation when crypto gains are converted into qualifying stablecoins and change how acquisition costs are calculated. The government opposed it.
France’s National Assembly voted on October 16 to end tax deferral on crypto-to-stablecoin swaps covered by a proposed budget amendment. Amendment I-3898, submitted by Nicolas Sansu and other MPs to the 2027 budget bill, passed with 38 votes in favor and 37 against.
Under France’s current tax guidance, crypto swaps without a cash balancing payment benefit from tax deferral. The adopted text would remove that treatment when the assets received are electronic money tokens as defined by MiCA, or rights relating to those tokens. A conversion into a qualifying stablecoin could therefore trigger tax on the gain before any sale for euros.
The change is not yet law. MPs adopted it during the National Assembly’s first reading of the 2027 budget. The budget’s legislative process is continuing. If enacted in this form, the provision would apply to disposals and exchanges from January 1, 2027.
The amendment does not set a new tax rate. The tax authority’s guidance, updated on July 17, 2026, gives a standard combined rate of 31.4% for private crypto gains: 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social contributions. Taxpayers can instead choose the progressive scale for the income tax component. Tax is charged on the calculated gain, rather than the full value of the assets exchanged.
Acquisition costs would be calculated by asset
The text would calculate a gain as the disposal value minus the acquisition cost of the assets sold or exchanged. Documented purchase fees could be added to the cost, while disposal fees could be deducted from the proceeds. Tokens of the same type bought at different prices would use a weighted average acquisition value. A deferred swap would carry the cost forward; a taxable swap would establish the new asset’s cost using the value applied in the gain calculation.
For holdings acquired before January 1, 2027, the amendment offers two approaches: substantiate the actual acquisition cost, or allocate the portfolio’s total acquisition cost as of December 31, 2026, in proportion to each asset’s value that day. The choice would be made for the entire portfolio in the first return covering a taxable transaction after the change and could not be reversed.
The government challenged the tracking requirements
According to the official debate record, Sansu argued for removing the difference in tax treatment between converting crypto gains into conventional money and into stablecoins. Budget Minister David Amiel asked him to withdraw the amendment, citing the definition of stablecoins, the tracing of portfolio reallocations and implementation complexity. Sansu kept it on the table, and it went to a vote with committee support and government opposition.
Speaking for the committee, Philippe Juvin said he personally preferred keeping the deferral because of price volatility. The debate and vote appear at 29:07–43:09 in the Assembly’s official October 16 session recording.
During the same session, MPs rejected a separate proposal by Paul Midy to allow crypto losses to be offset against gains over the following ten years, voting 18 in favor and 75 against. Current tax guidance allows private crypto losses to offset gains of the same type only in the same year, with no carryforward.
The National Assembly’s official announcement of its October 16 afternoon budget session
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