France’s Stablecoin Swap Tax Faces Oct. 20 Budget Vote

France’s proposal to tax gains when investors swap crypto into single-currency stablecoins faces an Oct. 20 vote on the 2027 budget’s revenue section, after deputies approved the amendment 38–37 on Oct. 16.

For French private investors, the measure would end the ability to defer tax when converting into e-money tokens defined under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, or MiCA. If enacted, it would apply to transactions from Jan. 1, 2027, bringing those gains within a tax regime whose default combined rate is 31.4%. That is a tax on gains, not the entire amount swapped.

The Oct. 20 vote is scheduled for the first part of the budget as a whole, rather than a fresh standalone vote on Amendment I-3898. The stablecoin provision is already included as Article 4 octies in the Assembly’s provisional text, published Oct. 19. Approval of that package would not itself make the tax law.

The finance committee had earlier rejected the budget’s first part, following its examination from Oct. 7 through Oct. 9. The subsequent Oct. 16 vote established the full Assembly’s support for the individual stablecoin amendment, with 25 deputies abstaining.

A Tax Bill Before Cashing Out

Under current tax-authority guidance, crypto-to-crypto exchanges without a cash adjustment benefit from tax deferral. Private investors generally face a 31.4% flat levy on taxable gains—12.8% income tax plus 18.6% social contributions—with an option to choose the progressive income-tax scale.

The amendment would carve exchanges into e-money tokens out of that deferral. MiCA defines those tokens by their aim of maintaining a stable value against one official currency. The practical change is that an investor could crystallize a taxable gain while remaining in crypto, rather than first converting into conventional money. The amendment’s operative wording uses that token definition, rather than a list of approved issuers or trading platforms.

It also changes how gains are calculated: the provisional text uses the difference between disposal proceeds and the acquisition cost of the assets sold, with a weighted-average acquisition cost for holdings of the same asset purchased at different prices. For assets held before 2027, it offers a choice between substantiated acquisition costs and an allocation of the portfolio’s existing acquisition cost based on year-end values.

The Assembly’s published calendar schedules a vote on the second part and the entire 2027 budget for Nov. 17.