Community Trust ScoreVerified
France’s Finance Committee just approved two crypto tax amendments that would hit investors hard — and the National Assembly starts reviewing the full 2027 Finance Bill on Tuesday, October 13.
Why It Matters
This development is significant as it reflects France's increasing regulatory scrutiny of the crypto market, particularly in relation to stablecoins, which have gained popularity as a means of avoiding volatility and capital gains taxes. By closing this perceived loophole, the French government aims to ensure that all crypto transactions, even those involving stablecoins, are subject to taxation, potentially impacting investor behavior and market dynamics. The introduction of an exit tax further underscores the government's commitment to regulating the crypto space, which could influence how investors approach their portfolios and tax strategies in the future.
The first amendment, labeled I-CF1826 and submitted by MP Nicolas Sansu, goes after what Sansu’s camp calls a legislative loophole: investors converting crypto into fiat-pegged stablecoins without triggering a taxable event. Under the current framework, swapping Bitcoin into a dollar- or euro-pegged stablecoin can look a lot like simply moving between digital assets — not a taxable sale. The new language would change that. Conversions into fiat-pegged stablecoins would become taxable events starting January 1, 2027, with gains calculated against the acquisition cost of the assets being disposed of. For investors holding the same token bought at different prices over time, the proposal uses a weighted average cost method. That’s actually a fairly standard accounting approach, but applying it to stablecoin swaps is new territory for French law. If the bill passes as written, investors could face capital gains taxes even without ever touching fiat currency — just moving into USDC or EURC would be enough to trigger a liability.
Not a small detail.
Exit Tax, Loss Carryforward, and the 800,000-Euro Threshold
The second major amendment, I-CCF798, came from MP Daniel Labaronne and covers two separate things. First, it lets investors carry forward realized crypto losses for up to ten years — that’s actually a win for long-term holders who’ve been burned by market downturns and couldn’t previously offset gains across a long enough window. Second, and more controversially, it extends France’s existing exit tax to cover unrealized crypto gains for households whose total crypto holdings exceed 800,000 euros (roughly $895,000) at the time they move abroad.
That second piece is the one that’s probably going to generate the most noise. Exit taxes aren’t new in France — the country already applies them to equity holdings when wealthy residents relocate. But bringing unrealized crypto gains into scope is a meaningful escalation. Someone with a large Bitcoin or Ethereum portfolio who decides to move to Portugal or the UAE would face a tax bill on paper gains they haven’t actually locked in yet. Unclear how enforcement would work in practice, but the intent is pretty obvious: stop high-net-worth crypto holders from leaving France before cashing out.
Meanwhile, Greece is moving in a somewhat different direction. The Greek Finance Ministry put forward a draft bill proposing a flat 10% tax on individual crypto capital gains, but with an exemption for annual gains under 500 euros (about $560). Unlike France’s proposal, Greece’s plan doesn’t touch crypto-to-crypto exchanges at all — so swapping Ethereum for Solana stays off the tax radar under the Greek framework. Two EU neighbors, two very different approaches.
DAC8 Sits Behind All of This
France’s moves don’t happen in a vacuum. The EU’s Directive on Administrative Cooperation — specifically its eighth amendment, known as DAC8 — is basically the engine running underneath these national proposals. DAC8 requires crypto service providers across EU member states to collect users’ identities and detailed transaction data, then report that information to national tax authorities. Those authorities then share it across borders. The requirements took effect January 1, 2026, with the first round of cross-border information exchanges due by September 2027.
So the timing isn’t accidental. France is essentially building its domestic tax rules to match what DAC8 already demands on the data side. It’s one thing to collect transaction records; it’s another to have clear domestic law that says what to do with them. The stablecoin amendment and the exit tax provision are, at least partly, France trying to make sure it has the legal teeth to act on the data DAC8 will generate.
That’s the part most retail crypto holders probably aren’t thinking about. Exchanges operating in France are already gathering this data. The question isn’t whether tax authorities will know about stablecoin swaps — they will. The question is whether there’s a law in place to tax them when they find out. If I-CF1826 passes, there will be.
Labaronne’s loss carryforward provision — ten years to offset realized losses — is the one piece of the package that’s genuinely investor-friendly. Most European jurisdictions have offered shorter windows or none at all for crypto-specific losses. Ten years gives holders meaningful room to recover from bad cycles before losing the ability to offset gains.
The National Assembly takes up the Finance Bill starting October 13.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Amendment I-CF1826 actually do?
Submitted by MP Nicolas Sansu, it makes conversions from crypto into fiat-pegged stablecoins taxable events starting January 1, 2027, with gains calculated using a weighted average acquisition cost.
Who does France’s new exit tax target?
The exit tax amendment covers unrealized crypto gains for households with total crypto holdings above 800,000 euros ($895,000) when they relocate outside France.
