French Lawmakers Advance Bitcoin (BTC) Exit Tax on Portfolios Above €800,000

Exit Tax Reaches Paper Gains

French lawmakers have advanced a measure that would tax digital-asset wealth at the moment a resident leaves the country, whether or not anything has been sold. The amendment to France's 2027 budget bill, filed by left-wing deputy Nicolas Sansu with 16 co-signers, was adopted by the National Assembly's finance committee on October 8, and a Paris-based law firm's reading of the filing confirms the vote and the threshold. It would impose an exit tax on portfolios worth more than €800,000, roughly $900,000, applying to unrealized gains alone. The levy mirrors an exit charge France already applies to shares when wealthy residents depart; crypto has so far been exempt. Anyone who lived in France for six of the past ten years falls within scope, and the taxable base covers coins on trading platforms as well as coins in self-custody wallets, including wallets held outside the country. The arithmetic is the part that has drawn attention: under the filing's own example, coins bought for €200,000 that are now worth €1 million carry an €800,000 paper gain, and that gain becomes taxable at departure with no sale ever executed. Leavers would also have to declare every digital asset they own on their tax return. The authors justify the measure by pointing at an asymmetry: a resident who departs with millions in crypto currently avoids a charge that a shareholder leaving with comparable wealth already pays. Because the tax is levied on euro-measured paper gains, it applies no matter where the Bitcoin (BTC) price sits on the day of departure.

Stablecoin Swaps Taxed From January 2027

A second amendment from the same deputy, adopted on October 7, reaches a routine trading maneuver: converting a volatile asset into a stablecoin, a token pegged to a currency such as the dollar or the euro. Under current French rules, swapping Bitcoin (BTC) for a dollar-pegged token is not a taxable event until the holder converts back to cash, whether the trade runs through a centralized exchange or an automated market maker. From January 2027, that conversion would itself count as a disposal, taxed at France's flat 31.4% rate. The amendment's authors describe the present treatment as a gap in the law and note that the United Kingdom and Italy already tax such swaps. The package circulated widely outside the assembly after a summary from Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo broke down the measures on X, alongside a related Sansu push to require tax declarations for wallets holding more than €100,000. The road ahead is the caution in this story. On October 9, the finance committee rejected the budget's entire revenue section by 31 votes to 3, which means every tax measure, these two included, restarts from the government's original text when debate opens on Tuesday, October 13. Each amendment must be adopted again at that stage and then clear the Senate before any of it becomes binding. The wider backdrop is a taxing environment hardening across Europe: Britain's tax agency is running a billionaire-focused compliance program and will begin receiving crypto exchange data in 2027, and the European Union has published a $23 billion tax forecast for digital assets.

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Broke down the measures on X.

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A Proposal, Not Yet a Rule

The pairing of the two amendments is what matters for holders sitting on gains accumulated through the bull market. An exit tax reaches wealth that has never been converted, and taxing stablecoin swaps removes the cheapest remaining way to rotate out of a volatile position without triggering a charge. For a resident above the €800,000 line, departure would crystallize a bill on gains they have never touched. Headlines alone may generate FUD among French holders, but the binding facts are procedural: the October 9 rejection reset the calendar, debate reopens October 13, and the Senate can still strip both measures. Until both chambers adopt them, this remains a proposal, not final law.