France’s National Assembly has approved a tax change that would make some crypto swaps taxable before holders convert to euros, bringing forward when French tax-resident individuals owe tax on gains.
The Oct. 16 roll call recorded 38 votes for amendment I-3898 and 37 against, while 25 lawmakers abstained. The vote added a provision to the draft 2027 budget, not a final law.
The change covers swaps in which a taxpayer gives up crypto assets and receives an electronic money token or related rights. Under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules, e-money tokens are a category of stablecoin designed to track one official currency. The measure concerns French tax-resident individuals; professional activity is subject to separate rules.
French rules generally let individuals defer tax on gains from eligible exchanges of digital assets when no additional payment is made, as described in earlier coverage of the proposal. I-3898 would end that treatment for swaps into a qualifying e-money token, making a gain taxable while the value remains in digital assets.
National Assembly member Nicolas Sansu, who introduced the amendment, said holders can spend the covered tokens on digital-asset platforms or trade them for other crypto while gains from the initial swap remain untaxed. He cited those uses as a reason to change when gains are taxed.
Public Accounts Minister David Amiel opposed the amendment during debate. In the Assembly transcript, he called for rules defining stablecoins and a system to monitor movements among crypto holdings.
The proposal would take effect Jan. 1, 2027, if enacted. French parliamentary broadcaster LCP reported that the revenue section vote planned for Oct. 20 could not go ahead because debate had not finished.
LCP said debate could resume around Oct. 27, after the Assembly’s review of the social security budget, but no new date for the revenue vote had been confirmed as of Oct. 22. The broadcaster also noted a similar pause in the Assembly’s budget review last year.
