France Wants to Tax Crypto Holders Before They Sell

French lawmakers are proposing a bill where crypto holders need to pay tax on their unrealized profit if they leave the country, even if they haven’t yet sold the assets. The exit tax would apply to portfolios worth more than €800,000, or nearly $900,000. 

France already charges this tax on shares when wealthy residents leave. Crypto has been exempt, and the plan could still fail in a debate that starts Tuesday.

How France’s Crypto Exit Tax Would Work

The measure is an amendment to France’s 2027 budget bill. Left-wing deputy Nicolas Sansu filed it with 16 co-signers, and the National Assembly’s finance committee adopted it on October 8, according to a Paris law firm.

The tax targets gains that exist only on paper. Someone who paid €200,000 for coins now worth €1 million holds an €800,000 paper gain, taxable on moving even without a sale.

It would apply to anyone who lived in France for six of the past 10 years. Coins on trading platforms count, and so do coins in personal wallets, including abroad.

Leavers would also have to list every crypto holding on their tax return. The authors argue that a person leaving with millions in crypto currently avoids a tax that a shareholder of equal wealth pays.

Stablecoin Swaps Face the Same Deadline

A second Sansu proposal, adopted on October 7, targets stablecoins. These are digital tokens pegged to a currency such as the dollar or euro.

Today, swapping Bitcoin for a dollar-pegged token is not taxed in France until the holder converts to cash. From January 2027, that swap would count as a sale, taxed at France’s 31.4% flat rate.

The authors call the current treatment a gap in the law. They say the UK and Italy already tax such swaps.

Both measures now hang on a reset. On October 9, the committee rejected the budget’s entire tax section, 31 votes to 3, so debate restarts Tuesday from the government’s original text.

Each measure must pass again there, then clear the Senate.

France is not alone in eyeing crypto wealth. Britain’s tax agency now runs a billionaire compliance push and receives crypto exchange data from 2027. The EU has published a $23 billion tax forecast for crypto.

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