France's Crypto Tax Plans Hit a Wall as Finance Committee Rejects Budget 31-3

Published October 11, 2026, 09:50 PKT. Based on Decrypt's October 10 reporting on the Finance Committee votes, the Assemblée Nationale's parliamentary channel LCP, and follow-up reporting by Coin Turk, CryptoSpiel, Coindoo, Cointime and Coincu. This article follows MABOnChain's October 10 coverage of the committee's adoption of the three amendments.

France's push to tax crypto-to-stablecoin swaps and levy an exit tax on wealthy crypto holders ran into a wall on Friday, October 9, when the National Assembly's Finance Committee rejected the 2027 budget's entire revenue section by 31 votes to 3, with two abstentions, according to the Assembly's parliamentary channel LCP. The three crypto tax amendments the committee had adopted earlier that week do not carry over to the full Assembly debate, which will start from the government's original budget text when floor debate opens on October 13. Neither measure is law, and the amendments' backers must table them again.

The 31-3 vote that undid the week

The rejection came after the committee spent the week reviewing individual amendments to the revenue section of the budget bill, deliberations that began on October 7. Of 10 crypto-related amendments submitted, three were adopted and one was rejected, according to BloomingBit's account of the proceedings. Then the committee threw out the revenue section as a whole: 31 votes against, 3 in favor, and 2 abstentions, LCP reported.

Procedurally, the rejection wipes the slate. The full National Assembly will debate the government's original text, without the crypto amendments, and their backers must reintroduce them for the floor debate that opens October 13. A formal vote is scheduled for October 20, Decrypt reported. The amendments can be tabled again, rewritten, or dropped. For French crypto holders, the rules are unchanged today; the immediate effect, as Coindoo noted, is that lawmakers are openly debating whether moving into regulated digital money or moving abroad should carry tax consequences similar to cashing out.

The stablecoin swap tax that started the fight

The flagship amendment, filed by Nicolas Sansu of the left-wing GDR group with 16 co-signers, would treat swaps of crypto into MiCA-defined electronic-money tokens, the EU category covering most single-currency stablecoins such as USDC and EURC, as taxable sales from January 1, 2027, Decrypt reported. Since 2019, swapping one digital asset for another has not been a taxable event in France, with tax applying only when gains are converted to regular money or spent. The amendment's authors call that "a hole in the legislation," arguing stablecoins can be ordinary investment vehicles, usable at crypto service providers or to buy other tokens, so letting gains escape the flat tax through them is unjustified.

The amendment sets no new rate. Gains would fall under France's flat tax, which rose to 31.4 percent on January 1 after the 2026 social-security financing law lifted the social-charge portion from 17.2 to 18.6 percent, Decrypt reported. The authors insist they are creating no new burden, only applying existing law to a case it missed.

The 800,000 euro exit tax

A second Sansu amendment would extend France's exit tax to crypto: a levy on unrealized gains, charged when a taxpayer moves tax residence abroad. It would apply when a tax household's combined crypto, including holdings kept through custodians, exceeds 800,000 euros and the taxpayer was a French tax resident for at least six of the previous 10 years, for moves from January 1, 2027, Decrypt reported. The threshold matches the one already used for shares, and the payment-deferral rules are borrowed from the stock regime.

Swaps between cryptocurrencies with no cash component would not count as sales for exit-tax purposes, but departing taxpayers would have to attach a statement of all crypto held on the date of the move, including assets held abroad or in self-custody, meaning wallets they control themselves without an exchange, Decrypt reported. The authors argue crypto held directly escapes the exit tax today while shares of the same value do not, and they flag how easily digital assets can be moved across borders.

The 10-year loss carryforward

The third adopted amendment, from Daniel Labaronne, is the taxpayer-friendly piece of the package. It would let investors carry crypto losses forward for up to 10 years to offset future gains, aligning digital assets with the existing rules for stocks, according to Coin Turk and Decrypt. Today, unused crypto losses in France cannot be carried over; only gains and losses within the same year are netted, so an investor who loses in one year and recovers in the next pays tax on the recovery without relief for the loss.

October 13 and October 20: the two dates that decide it

The crypto amendments now live or die in the floor debate. The revenue section opens for debate on October 13, and the formal vote is set for October 20. If the measures return and survive, the stablecoin and exit-tax rules would apply from January 1, 2027. If backers fail to reintroduce them, the 31-3 rejection will have quietly killed France's most ambitious crypto tax package to date.

France is not the only EU member rewriting its crypto tax rules this month, and the approaches differ sharply. As MABOnChain reported on October 10, Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a draft bill proposing a simple 10 percent tax on crypto gains with a 500 euro annual exemption, a far simpler design than France's layered package. In late October 2025, the Assembly also voted 163 to 150 in first reading for a 1 percent annual levy on "unproductive" wealth above 2 million euros that grouped digital assets with gold and yachts, Decrypt reported, showing this is not France's first attempt to pull crypto into the tax net.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• Decrypt, "French Committee Backs Stablecoin Swap Tax and Crypto Exit Tax, Then Rejects the Budget" (October 10, 2026), primary source for the 31-3 rejection, the floor-debate timeline, and the amendment texts via the Assemblée Nationale's official records
• LCP, the Assemblée Nationale's parliamentary channel, vote tally (31 to 3, two abstentions), reported via Coindoo, secondary source
• Coin Turk, "France advances stablecoin tax and crypto exit levy, key decision set for Oct. 20" (October 10, 2026), secondary source
• CryptoSpiel, "France's €800K Crypto Exit Tax Faces New Budget Hurdle" (October 10, 2026), secondary source
• Coindoo, "France Eyes Crypto Taxes Before Cashing Out" (October 10, 2026), secondary source
• Cointime, "French Finance Committee Approves Amendments on Stablecoin Exchange Tax and Crypto Exit Tax" (October 10, 2026), secondary source
• MABOnChain, "France Backs 2027 Tax on Crypto-to-Stablecoin Swaps and a Crypto Exit Tax" (October 10, 2026), prior coverage of the three amendments' adoption