French National Assembly Rejects Crypto Exit-Tax Proposals in 60-31 Vote

Second Delay for the 2027 Budget Vote

France's National Assembly has postponed, for a second time, the vote on the revenue section of the 2027 budget, and in the process has shelved two proposals that would have extended the country's exit tax to cryptocurrency holdings. An end-of-session notice issued after Monday's sitting shows lawmakers will resume examining the revenue provisions on Tuesday, November 3, with 758 amendments still awaiting debate. The original vote, scheduled for October 20, had already been pushed back when more than 2,000 amendments remained unresolved; examination resumed on October 27 after a week devoted to social security financing.

The delay is not the only setback for supporters of a crypto exit tax. On Friday, October 30, the Assembly rejected amendment I-3904, introduced by Nicolas Sansu, which would have folded eligible crypto assets into France's existing exit-tax regime. That regime currently applies to certain financial holdings when taxpayers transfer their tax residence outside the country. Sansu's text would have covered cryptocurrency held directly, through exchanges or in self-custody wallets, and would have captured qualifying unrealized gains, meaning paper profits on assets the investor has not sold. It was drafted to apply to eligible taxpayers relocating from January 1, 2027. The Assembly's official voting record shows 27 lawmakers in favor, 55 against and one abstention, a defeat by more than two to one. Both failed amendments therefore sit outside the budget provisions approved so far.

Higher Thresholds and the Measures Still Alive

A second proposal met the same fate. Amendment I-3432, submitted by Mickaël Bouloux, targeted unrealized gains on household cryptocurrency holdings exceeding €800,000, roughly $897,000. It would have applied to investors who had been French tax residents for at least six of the previous 10 years before moving abroad, a group the existing framework would otherwise not reach. The second voting record shows 31 votes in favor and 60 against, an even wider margin than the first defeat.

Rejection of the exit-tax texts does not end the budget's crypto docket. One pending measure would require individuals holding at least €100,000, about $112,000, in cryptocurrencies stored outside regulated service providers, including personal wallets secured by a private key, to report those holdings to the French tax authorities; an earlier committee draft carried penalties of up to €10,000 for non-declaration. Committee approval has not made the requirement law, and it remains subject to parliamentary consideration. A separate proposal would exempt gains on crypto wallet address-held payments for goods and services from capital gains tax when total qualifying payments stay under €1,000 in the tax year. Lawmakers also approved an amendment on October 16 that would make certain conversions into fiat-pegged stablecoins taxable transactions, reversing rules that generally allow crypto-to-crypto exchanges without immediate tax; an earlier draft would have let qualifying crypto losses offset gains over a 10-year period. None of these texts has become law.

COINOTAG's reading: the two roll-call results, 27-55 and 31-60, indicate consensus opposition rather than a narrow procedural loss, making an exit tax on unrealized crypto gains unlikely to return in this first reading. The live risk for holders sits elsewhere, in the self-custody reporting duty and the stablecoin conversion tax, both of which survived committee. Timing matters: the Assembly must finish its first reading by midnight on November 17, and if the revenue section is rejected outright, amendments adopted at this stage will not travel with the government's text to the Senate. The broader budget process faces a constitutional deadline of December 17, against a government objective of cutting the public deficit to 5% of GDP. For taxpayers weighing relocation, our overview of Crypto Tax Free Countries You Should Know in 2026 covers how other jurisdictions treat departing holders.