France's National Assembly Finance Committee approved amendments this week that would tax conversions of crypto into fiat-pegged stablecoins and extend the country's exit tax to unrealized crypto gains held by households with more than €800,000 ($895,000) in digital assets who relocate abroad.

The proposals form part of the 2027 Finance Bill, which the full Assembly begins examining on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

What would the stablecoin amendment change?

Amendment I-CF1826, submitted by MP Nicolas Sansu and adopted Wednesday, would reclassify crypto conversions into fiat-pegged stablecoins as taxable events from Jan. 1, 2027. Under current French rules, swapping bitcoin or ether for a euro- or dollar-pegged stablecoin does not trigger capital gains tax.

The amendment's explanatory text describes the existing treatment as a "loophole in the legislation," according to a machine translation. Taxable gains would be calculated using the acquisition cost of the assets disposed of, with a weighted average applied to holdings of the same token bought at different prices.

If the provision is enacted as drafted, French investors could incur capital gains tax liabilities without ever cashing out into fiat currency. That change would compress a structuring assumption common among European traders — that stablecoin positions sit outside the taxable perimeter until converted to bank money.

What about loss carry-forward and the exit tax?

A second measure adopted Wednesday, Amendment I-CCF798 filed by MP Daniel Labaronne, would allow investors to carry forward realized crypto losses for 10 years. That offset mechanism partially cushions the broader tax base expansion, letting sustained losses offset gains over a longer window.

On Thursday, the committee adopted a third amendment covering an exit tax on unrealized gains. It would apply when taxpayers with household crypto holdings worth more than €800,000 transfer their residence abroad. The threshold mirrors the logic of France's existing exit tax regime for shareholdings, bringing crypto into line with traditional asset classes for emigration planning.

How does France compare with the rest of Europe?

The French approach diverges from a draft bill published Wednesday by Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance, which proposes a 10% tax on individuals' crypto capital gains with an exemption for annual gains up to €500 ($560). The Greek proposal would leave crypto-to-crypto exchanges untaxed — the opposite of France's plan to capture conversions into stablecoins.

Both countries operate under the European Union's DAC8 framework, the eighth amendment to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation. DAC8 obliges crypto service providers to collect users' identities and transaction data and report them to national tax authorities, which then exchange the information with counterparts across EU member states.

The reporting requirements began applying on Jan. 1, 2026. The first information exchanges covering 2026 transactions are due by September 2027 — a timeline that gives national tax administrations visibility into the very transaction flows the French amendments seek to tax.

What happens next?

The amendments now move to the full National Assembly, where the 2027 Finance Bill debate opens Oct. 13. Adoption is not guaranteed: committee backing signals political momentum, but the plenary vote and subsequent Senate review can amend or strike the provisions.

If the stablecoin measure survives intact, French investors have until Jan. 1, 2027, before conversions into fiat-pegged tokens become taxable events — a window in which portfolios can be rebalanced under the current regime.