France narrowly votes to tax crypto-to-stablecoin swaps from 2027
DeFi & Yields ·
A one-vote margin in the National Assembly advanced a budget amendment that would turn conversions into euro- or dollar-pegged stablecoins into taxable events, with gains tracked per coin.
France's National Assembly passed amendment I-3898 to the 2027 budget by the thinnest possible margin, as reported by Decrypt. Of 100 deputies participating, 38 voted in favor, 37 against, and 25 abstained, landing the measure exactly at the 38 votes needed to pass. The vote revives a provision that had previously collapsed when the finance committee's broader budget text was rejected.
Under current French rules, moving between cryptocurrencies carries no tax liability as long as the holder never converts into euros; tax is only triggered on cashing out or spending. The amendment changes that calculus specifically for swaps into electronic money tokens under MiCA, the EU framework covering stablecoins pegged to a single fiat currency. Starting January 1, 2027, such swaps would be treated as sales, with any gain — the stablecoin's value minus the original purchase cost of the crypto given up — taxed under France's flat tax rate, now 31.4% following a 2026 adjustment to social charges on capital income.
The amendment also changes cost accounting. Rather than applying one average cost across an entire crypto portfolio, each coin would be valued individually, with averaging applied only when the same asset was purchased multiple times. Holders with pre-2027 positions would have to make a single, irreversible choice: track the actual cost basis of each asset, or spread their total portfolio cost across holdings as they stood on December 31, 2026.
The amendment's backers, led by Nicolas Sansu of the GDR group, framed stablecoins as functioning like ordinary investment instruments that let users skirt the flat tax by parking gains rather than converting to currency outright, pointing to similar legislation already in place in the UK and Italy, according to CoinDesk. The government pushed back, with Public Accounts Minister David Amiel calling for withdrawal on grounds that stablecoins still lack a formal legal definition and that authorities need better visibility into portfolio reallocations.
The measure is one piece of a larger fight over crypto taxation in France's budget process, alongside a separate committee proposal to require declaring self-custodied holdings above €100,000, which has drawn industry pushback over security risks tied to a wave of crypto-related kidnappings. Additional coverage of the shifting tax landscape has been tracked by leviathan.news. Neither the stablecoin swap tax nor the wallet-disclosure rule is finalized, and both still must survive the remainder of the budget process before taking effect.