France moves to tax stablecoin swaps and add a crypto exit tax in the 2027 budget bill

What happened

France's National Assembly Finance Committee approved proposals this week that would change when crypto gains become taxable, with the central measure aimed at conversions into fiat pegged stablecoins. Cointelegraph reported that one amendment, adopted on Wednesday, would make crypto conversions into fiat pegged stablecoins taxable events from January 1, 2027. The explanatory text describes the current tax treatment as a loophole in the legislation, according to a machine translation cited in the reporting. Under the proposal, taxable gains would be calculated using the acquisition cost of the assets disposed of, with a weighted average for holdings of the same token bought at different prices. The full Assembly is scheduled to begin examining the 2027 Finance Bill on Tuesday, October 13. If enacted, investors could incur capital gains taxes without cashing out into fiat.

Two further measures were adopted alongside the stablecoin provision. A second amendment, also adopted on Wednesday, would allow investors to carry forward realized crypto losses for 10 years. An exit tax amendment adopted on Thursday would cover unrealized gains when taxpayers with household crypto holdings worth more than 800,000 euros, reported as 895,000 dollars, transfer their residences abroad. The three measures sit at different points of the same holding cycle. The stablecoin measure taxes a move inside crypto that stops at a fiat pegged token. The loss measure stretches the period over which a realized loss can be used. The exit measure taxes paper gains at the moment a high value household leaves the tax residence system. None of the three has become law through the committee step alone. The October 13 Assembly examination is the next dated step in the reporting.

The same Cointelegraph report placed France beside two neighbouring policy tracks that help define what is, and is not, changing. On Wednesday, Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a draft bill proposing a 10 percent tax on individuals' crypto capital gains, with an exemption for annual gains of up to 500 euros, reported as 560 dollars. Unlike the French proposal, the Greek proposal would leave crypto to crypto exchanges untaxed. Separately, France and other European Union members must apply the bloc tax reporting rules under the eighth amendment to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, known as DAC8. Those rules require 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 member states. The crypto reporting requirements began applying on January 1, 2026, and the first exchanges of information covering 2026 transactions are due by September 2027.

Why it matters

A stablecoin conversion is, in market terms, a move to the sidelines that stays inside crypto rails. A holder can leave bitcoin or ether exposure, hold a token designed to track fiat value, and later re enter without passing through a bank account. French tax law, as described in the amendment explanatory text, currently treats that sidestep in a way the drafters call a loophole. Making the conversion itself a taxable event from January 1, 2027 would move the tax point forward, from the eventual fiat exit to the moment exposure changes into a fiat pegged token. That is a timing change with real cash consequences. A taxable gain can arise on paper at conversion even though the holder receives stablecoins rather than euros or dollars that could be used to pay the tax. The reporting makes that point directly: investors could incur capital gains taxes without cashing out into fiat.

The weighted average basis rule is the accounting hinge of the proposal. Many holders acquire the same token in several purchases at different prices, through different venues, over different years. When part of that holding is converted into a stablecoin, the gain depends on which acquisition cost is assigned to the part disposed of. A weighted average across holdings of the same token replaces lot selection with a single blended cost. That can simplify a return in one sense and complicate record keeping in another. The holder needs a defensible average that survives transfers between wallets and exchanges, partial disposals, and conversions that happen in stages. The amendment text reported by Cointelegraph specifies the method. It does not, in the reporting, settle every record question that exchanges and tax preparers would need answered before 2027. Those unanswered mechanics are part of why a committee adoption is a signal to prepare records, not a final instruction set.

The 10 year loss carryforward cuts in the opposite direction from the stablecoin tax and should not be read as a minor footnote. Realized crypto losses are common in a market that can fall sharply within a single year, and a carryforward lets a loss that cannot be used at once remain available against later gains for a decade under the proposal. Paired with a new tax trigger on stablecoin conversions, the package would both create more taxable events and lengthen the window for offsetting them. Whether that pairing survives the full Assembly is a legislative question. Its structure is already clear enough to describe: broaden the points at which gains are measured, and broaden the period over which losses can answer them.

The exit tax threshold defines who feels the third measure. At more than 800,000 euros in household crypto holdings, reported as 895,000 dollars, the proposal targets unrealized gains when residence moves abroad. That is not a tax on using an exchange or moving coins between wallets. It is a residence change tax on paper gains for households above a high threshold. For most holders it will never apply. For founders, executives, and long term holders with concentrated positions, it changes the cost calculation of leaving France after gains have accrued. The contrast with Greece is useful here. A proposed 10 percent rate with a 500 euro annual exemption and no tax on crypto to crypto exchanges is a different philosophy from taxing the stablecoin sidestep itself. Europe is not moving to one crypto tax model in this news cycle. It is producing several, at the same time as DAC8 makes transaction reporting more uniform across member states from January 1, 2026, with first information exchanges due by September 2027.

What to watch

Watch the full Assembly examination scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 13. The Finance Committee adoption puts the stablecoin tax, the 10 year loss carryforward, and the exit tax into the 2027 Finance Bill process. It does not enact them. Amendments can be kept, changed, or removed as the bill moves, and the January 1, 2027 start date for the stablecoin measure only matters if the provision survives in final law. The first useful sign will be whether the Assembly debate treats the stablecoin conversion as a true disposal for tax purposes, and whether the weighted average basis method remains the stated way to measure the gain.

Watch for implementation detail that the committee report does not yet supply. Holders and service providers will need to know how the weighted average is built when the same token sits across several wallets, how transfers between a holder's own accounts are treated, and what records exchanges must supply so a conversion into a fiat pegged stablecoin can be reported with its basis attached. DAC8 already requires providers to collect identities and transaction data for reporting that began applying on January 1, 2026, with the first cross border exchanges covering 2026 transactions due by September 2027. If the French measure passes, the reporting pipe and the tax trigger will arrive on related but different clocks. Guidance that joins the two would reduce surprise. Silence would leave preparers to reconcile exchange reports with a blended basis that only the holder's full history can prove.

Watch Greece as the control case. Its draft bill, published the same week, proposes a 10 percent tax on individuals' crypto capital gains, a 500 euro annual exemption, and no tax on crypto to crypto exchanges. If Greece advances that design while France taxes the stablecoin step, European holders will face sharply different results for the same trade depending on residence. That divergence is worth tracking without overstating it. Both are proposals. Neither should be reported as settled law. The dated facts to carry forward are narrow and checkable: committee action in France this week, an Assembly start date of October 13, a proposed French start date of January 1, 2027, and a DAC8 reporting timetable that is already running toward September 2027.