French lawmakers advanced a tax proposal on October 16 that would recognize gains when cryptocurrency holders swap into stablecoins regulated under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA). The National Assembly adopted amendment I-3898 by a vote of 38 to 37, with 25 abstentions, during the first reading of the 2027 finance bill.
Under current French tax rules, crypto-to-crypto exchanges without cash payments receive tax deferral, allowing holders to change positions without immediately recognizing taxable gains. The proposal would eliminate this deferral for swaps into MiCA e-money tokens, which are defined as crypto assets maintaining stable value by reference to a single official currency.
This means a holder converting appreciated Bitcoin or Ethereum into a qualifying stablecoin to reduce market exposure could face a taxable event on the gain, even if the proceeds remain in cryptocurrency and never reach a bank account. The taxable gain would be calculated above the asset's acquisition cost, with documented fees accounted for.
The proposal includes provisions for investors holding assets before 2027 to use documented actual costs or allocate existing portfolio acquisition cost across all holdings based on their December 31 values. Taxable swaps would reset the acquired assets' cost basis, while non-taxable swaps would carry basis forward.
In a separate vote, French MPs rejected amendment I-3653, which would have allowed unused cryptocurrency losses to carry forward for ten years. The rejection leaves existing same-year offsets in place, meaning crypto losses can only offset crypto gains within the same tax year. Earlier losses cannot carry into subsequent years or offset gains on other asset categories.
The stablecoin provision remains in Article 4 octies of the provisional budget text as of October 19. The proposed effective date of January 1, 2027 depends on the finance bill becoming law through the remainder of the legislative process.
