France Taxes Crypto Swaps by One Vote as RN Abstains

Opinion. Every figure below is sourced in the box at the end; the conclusions are the author's.

In France, the National Assembly voted on Friday, October 16, 2026 to tax crypto savers when they swap a token for a stablecoin, even if they never touch a single euro. The amendment passed 38 to 37. One vote. And it passed because 25 deputies of the Rassemblement National, the party that says it defends savers against the tax machine, pressed "abstain."

What was voted

Amendment 3898, tabled by Nicolas Sansu of the left wing GDR group during the first reading of the 2027 finance bill, rewrites article 150 VH bis of the tax code. Today, exchanging one crypto asset for another is not a taxable event: the tax waits until you cash out into euros. The amendment removes that deferral whenever what you receive is an electronic money token as defined by the EU's MiCA regulation. In plain words: swap bitcoin for a euro or dollar stablecoin on a platform, and the gain becomes taxable, starting with operations on January 1, 2027.

It goes further than the headline. The amendment also replaces the current portfolio formula with a gain computed per asset, using a weighted average purchase price for identical tokens. Holders get a choice for anything bought before 2027: prove the real cost of each token, or spread the total cost of the portfolio at December 31, 2026 across holdings in proportion to their value. That choice is irrevocable.

The author's own summary calls the current rule a loophole and says the United Kingdom and Italy already treat stablecoins as money for tax purposes. That claim is his, not mine; it is printed in the official summary.

The arithmetic of a Friday night

The official record of vote 8836 lists 100 deputies voting out of 577. Seventy five cast a vote, 25 abstained. Majority needed: 38. Score: 38 for, 37 against.

For: La France insoumise 12, Socialists 9, Ecologists 8, MoDem 4, GDR 3, Horizons 1, and one deputy of the presidential group, Olivia Grégoire. After the vote, the record notes that she "wanted to vote against." Had her button matched her intention, the score would have been 37 to 38 and the amendment would have died.

Against: Ensemble pour la République 12, RN 10, Droite Républicaine 5, LIOT 5, Horizons 3, MoDem 1, one non attached deputy.

Abstained: 25, every single one from the RN. Had those 25 voted against, it would have been 38 to 62. The Union des droites pour la République group recorded no vote at all.

Why this matters beyond crypto

Taxing a swap between two digital assets means taxing a gain the saver has not converted into spendable money. The state takes its cut in euros on a position that may still be fully exposed to the market. When prices fall the next month, the tax already paid does not come back on its own. This is the logic of a fiscal system that sees every movement as a taxable event and every saver as a source of revenue before he is a citizen.

The left wrote it and voted it. Fine, that is consistent. The presidential camp mostly voted against and lost by one misclick. The RN, which campaigns on purchasing power and against fiscal zeal, had 35 deputies take part in this vote and chose to let it through.

Verdict

A right that claims to defend savers does not abstain on a tax on savers. Either the 25 abstentions were a deliberate signal that the RN accepts this tax, or nobody in the group read the amendment before the vote. Both answers are bad. One party will have to explain to young French investors why a tax decided by one vote passed with its benches full and its buttons on neutral. The Senate can still kill it. The question is whether the RN will ask it to.