French Lawmakers Vote to Tax Crypto Swaps Into Stablecoins at 31.4% Even If You Never Cash Out

French lawmakers have voted to tax gains from certain cryptocurrency-to-stablecoin swaps, potentially leaving investors with a tax bill even when they have not converted their holdings into euros or withdrawn money to a bank account.

The National Assembly adopted Amendment I-3898 by 38 votes to 37, with 25 abstentions, on Oct. 16 during the first reading of France’s 2027 Finance Bill. Proposed by Nicolas Sansu of the Gauche Démocrate et Républicaine group, the amendment would end tax deferral for exchanges into qualifying electronic money tokens under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation from Jan. 1, 2027, if enacted.

Qualifying transactions would fall under France’s existing 31.4% flat tax on private cryptocurrency gains. The amendment does not introduce a new rate, and investors could still elect to use the progressive income-tax scale. The measure remains a proposal, not law.

A One-Vote Win in a Sparsely Attended Chamber

The official parliamentary record shows that 100 of the National Assembly’s 577 members participated in the vote. Of those, 75 voted for or against the amendment, while 25 abstained. An absolute majority of the votes cast required 38 votes, allowing the proposal to pass by a single vote.

Olivia Grégoire, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble pour la République group, was recorded as voting in favor. A subsequent parliamentary note said she had intended to vote against the amendment. The result remained unchanged. All 25 abstentions came from the National Rally group, which also cast 10 votes against the proposal.

David Amiel, France’s minister for public action and accounts, opposed the measure and urged lawmakers to withdraw it. He raised concerns about defining the stablecoins covered by the proposal and tracking reallocations within cryptocurrency portfolios. Philippe Juvin, the National Assembly’s finance committee rapporteur general, also argued against ending tax deferral, citing the volatility of crypto assets.

Which Stablecoin Swaps Would Become Taxable?

Under France’s current rules, individual investors generally benefit from tax deferral when exchanging one cryptocurrency for another without a cash balancing payment. Tax is generally triggered when crypto is sold for official currency or used to purchase goods or services, subject to the applicable rules.

Amendment I-3898 would change that treatment for exchanges in which investors receive electronic money tokens as defined under Article 3(1)(7) of the EU’s MiCA regulation. These tokens are a category of stablecoin designed to maintain a stable value against a single official currency. The proposal would cover qualifying tokens, rather than every stablecoin on the market.

The tax would apply to the realized gain, not the full transaction value. An investor who bought bitcoin for €30,000 and later exchanged it for €70,000 worth of a qualifying stablecoin, for example, would realize a €40,000 gain. Applying the existing 31.4% flat rate would produce a tax bill of €12,560, assuming the full gain is taxable and no other adjustments apply.

The rate comprises 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social levies. Investors may instead elect the progressive income-tax scale, which could produce a different liability depending on their circumstances. Under the proposal, the qualifying swap itself would trigger taxation even though the investor had not received euros in a bank account.

The amendment would also change how acquisition costs are calculated. Instead of relying on the existing portfolio-wide formula, the proposed approach would calculate gains on an asset-by-asset basis, using a weighted average acquisition cost for units of the same asset purchased at different prices.

For assets acquired before 2027, the amendment provides an irrevocable choice between using documented historical acquisition costs and allocating the portfolio’s total acquisition cost on a pro-rata basis as of Dec. 31, 2026. That choice would determine how investors establish the cost basis used to calculate taxable gains if the provision takes effect.

Government Opposition Leaves the Proposal Open to Revision

The amendment’s explanatory statement describes the current treatment as a gap in the law, arguing that investors can move gains into stablecoins without triggering immediate taxation, even when those tokens can be used for payments or further cryptocurrency purchases.

Amiel’s objections centered on implementation. Defining the assets covered and tracing portfolio reallocations would require a workable framework, he argued. He also pointed to the EU’s DAC8 framework, which provides for the exchange of information on crypto-asset transactions between tax authorities. The government opposed the amendment during the parliamentary debate.

The proposal must still pass the remaining stages of the 2027 Finance Bill, including further consideration by the National Assembly and review by the Senate. Lawmakers could revise or remove the provision before the budget process concludes. The decisive question is whether the final legislation will preserve the proposed Jan. 1, 2027, start date and how narrowly it will define the stablecoin swaps subject to immediate taxation.