France's National Assembly adopted amendment I-3898 to the 2027 budget on Friday by 38 votes to 37, with 25 abstentions, taking crypto-to-stablecoin swaps a step closer to the country's 31.4% capital gains levy. The text removes the tax deferral that currently applies when an investor swaps one crypto asset for another without cashing out to euros, but only where the asset received is an e-money token as defined by the EU's MiCA framework. In plain terms, moving from bitcoin into a qualifying euro or dollar stablecoin would become a taxable event from 1 January 2027, even if no money ever reaches a bank account. The change was first reported by CoinDesk and the full voting record is published by the Assemblée nationale. Investors would still be able to opt for the progressive income-tax scale instead of the 31.4% flat rate.
The government asked for it to be withdrawn
Public Accounts Minister David Amiel opposed the amendment and asked its backers to pull it. "We first need to define stablecoins, then ensure our ability to monitor and trace reallocations within a portfolio of assets," he told lawmakers during the debate. The finance committee's rapporteur general, Philippe Juvin, said he favoured keeping the deferral given crypto's volatility. Industry reaction was sharper: Francois Volpoet, Chainalysis' regional sales director for France, warned the levy could push traders toward decentralized finance platforms, peer-to-peer deals and offshore exchanges that sit outside international tax-reporting arrangements. The text also changes how gains are calculated, replacing France's portfolio-wide method with one based on the acquisition cost of the specific assets sold, using a weighted average for units of the same coin bought at different prices.
What happens next, and what happened to the wallet rule
The amendment is not law. It travels with the 2027 budget through the remaining parliamentary stages, including the Senate, and can still be amended or removed before final adoption. The same budget debate has also settled the question we covered on Sunday: the rival 5,000 euro self-custody wallet declaration, filed as I-3922, was not adopted. The original 100,000 euro wallet disclosure text, backed by the finance committee on 9 October, remains in the budget debate. For French holders, the practical calendar is now clear: the stablecoin swap tax, if it survives, bites from 1 January 2027, and the wallet reporting fight continues in the same bill.