France removes €100,000 self-custody reporting from 2027 budget

By Marcus Bennett

France’s 2027 budget lost a proposed €100,000 self-custody crypto reporting requirement when the National Assembly rejected the entire revenue section 458-0.

For a French taxpayer holding tokens in a hardware device or directly controlled software wallet, the immediate effect is simple: no new annual declaration and no €10,000 penalty for missing one.

The amendment had reached that point only days earlier. Its removal came through a procedural budget rejection, not a fresh vote against self-custody reporting.

The amendment’s short life

On November 3, 2026, the Assembly adopted amendment I-2701 by 150 votes to 44, with eight abstentions. The measure would have required French taxpayers to declare crypto held in wallets they control directly.

The category covered hardware devices and software wallets not supplied by a crypto-asset service provider. Holdings would be measured once each year, on December 31, to determine whether a filing was required.

Non-compliance could have carried penalties of up to €10,000. The reporting trigger was €100,000.

The amendment lasted about 48 hours in the budget text. On November 4-5, 2026, the Assembly rejected the budget’s revenue portion by 458 votes to none, with two abstentions.

Amendment I-2701 disappeared with the section that contained it. No separate vote rejected the wallet rule on its merits. The Assembly rejected the broader legislative vehicle.

Other crypto proposals disappeared

The same section held proposals to tax certain crypto-to-stablecoin conversions. It also carried provisions to strengthen penalties on crypto platforms.

Neither set of ideas was defeated on its individual merits. Both lost their place when the revenue section fell.

For crypto platforms and taxpayers, the immediate consequence is procedural: those proposed tax and enforcement changes did not survive this budget passage.

That leaves policy unsettled rather than conclusively rejected on substance. Future parliamentary sessions could still revive proposals.

An earlier attempt ended in April

France had already tried a lower-threshold version of self-custody reporting. An earlier proposal set the trigger at €5,000.

That version was discarded in April 2026 after verification issues and pushback from the crypto industry.

Raising the amount to €100,000 looked like an attempt to narrow the target. It would have captured fewer, larger holders instead of people with modest token balances.

Two proposals in one year show that lawmakers have not settled on a workable design. Their searches have covered thresholds separated by a factor of 20.

DAC8 does not reach self-custody

The European Union’s DAC8 directive is set to enforce reporting by crypto platforms starting in 2026. Its scope centers on intermediaries, including exchanges and service providers that hold customer assets.

Self-custody sits outside that net. Amendment I-2701 tried to close that gap at the national level by placing reporting duties directly on wallet holders.

That creates the central operational problem for tax administrators. Platform reports give authorities visibility into custodial holdings, while direct wallets leave no automatic, intermediary-backed view of what a taxpayer owns.

A renewed national rule would confront the same verification issues that sank the €5,000 version. Raising the threshold reduced the affected population, but did not resolve the underlying data problem.

What changes for French self-custody holders?

Nothing changes now for people holding crypto in their own wallets. The discarded amendment created no annual declaration and no €10,000 fine for missing one.

France has shelved the proposal rather than buried the idea. Lawmakers can reintroduce it in future parliamentary sessions.

The 150-44 vote on amendment I-2701 shows continued appetite for some form of self-custody disclosure, even though this version failed on procedure.

For French self-custody holders, the practical answer is that no national wallet-reporting duty has been added. The uncertainty lies in what Parliament may attempt next.

With DAC8 platform reporting scheduled for 2026, the next decision point is whether French lawmakers revive the proposal and devise a workable way to verify directly held crypto.