38 to 37. That was the margin by which France’s National Assembly adopted amendment I-3898 to the 2027 budget on 16 October, CoinDesk reported on 20 October. Twenty-five members abstained.
The amendment ends the tax deferral on swapping crypto into stablecoins that qualify under the EU’s MiCA rules. Gains could be taxed even when no money reaches a bank account.
The default rate is 31.4 percent, with an option to use the progressive income tax scale, from 1 January 2027. It also replaces the portfolio-wide gains calculation with one based on the acquisition cost of the assets sold, using a weighted average for units bought at different prices.
Public Accounts Minister David Amiel asked for the amendment to be withdrawn and said he would oppose it otherwise. His objections were practical: how to define a stablecoin, and how to trace reallocations inside a portfolio. The rapporteur general, Philippe Juvin, favoured keeping the deferral because of crypto’s volatility.
Francois Volpoet of Chainalysis warns the levy could push traders towards DeFi, peer-to-peer deals and offshore exchanges outside international tax-reporting arrangements, the opposite of what a MiCA-only rule seems to intend.
None of it is law. The measure must clear the remaining stages of the budget process and could still be amended or removed. A one-vote margin is thin ground to carry through those stages against a government that has already said it will fight the text. Whether anything of it survives to 1 January is the number nobody can give.
