French MPs push exit tax on crypto above €800,000 and fines for undeclared wallets

French MPs want wealthy crypto investors who leave the country to pay tax on their paper gains, under an amendment backed in committee last week alongside fines of up to €10,000 for undeclared self-custody wallets, though every measure must be voted on again.

Moving abroad from France could soon cost the richest holders of digital assets more, as lawmakers seek to bring Bitcoin and other crypto into a levy already paid by relocating equity investors.

On Thursday, the National Assembly’s finance committee, the cross-party panel that vets budget bills before the full lower house debates them, voted to extend France’s exit tax to crypto-assets from 1 January 2027.

The current levy taxes unrealised gains when people who have lived in France for at least six of the past ten years move abroad with shares and other securities cumulatively worth more than €800,000.

The amendment would apply the same threshold to a household’s crypto, including tokens on foreign platforms or in self-custody wallets that owners control directly.

As with shares, payment would be deferred for moves within the EU and to some other countries, and the tax is cancelled if the assets are kept for two to five years.

The amendment does not set a rate or mention social charges, which make up 18.6 points of the 31.4% levied on departing shareholders’ gains, leaving unclear what crypto holders would pay.

Its sponsors, Communist MP Nicolas Sansu and 16 left-wing colleagues, argue that crypto escapes a levy applied to securities of equal value, inviting tax avoidance.

Wallets, stablecoins and other measures

The committee also backed a plan by centrist MP Charles de Courson to make taxpayers declare self-custody wallets worth a combined €100,000 or more at year-end, or face fines of up to €10,000. Currently, only crypto accounts abroad must be reported.

Citing a parliamentary inquiry that flagged crypto as a fraud risk, its backers say French investors made an estimated €3.5 billion in crypto gains in 2021 but declared only €400 million in holdings.

France’s Court of Audit has said that figure was in fact declared gains.

Crypto advocates warn such a data register could leak and endanger holders, amid a wave of crypto-linked kidnappings in France.

Police counted more than 40 crypto-linked kidnappings in France between January and mid-April, after about 30 in all of 2025.

In one of the best-known cases, kidnappers seized David Balland, co-founder of French crypto wallet maker Ledger, and his partner in January 2025, cutting off one of his fingers to press a crypto ransom demand before police freed them.

A second Sansu amendment, which also sets no rate, would make swapping crypto for stablecoins, tokens pegged to a currency such as the US dollar, taxable from 2027 under the existing 31.4% flat tax on crypto gains.

Tax is currently only due on cashing out or spending crypto.

MPs also voted to let investors offset crypto losses against gains for ten years and to raise a planned fine for ignoring tax authority requests for documents from €10,000 to €50,000 per request. The government’s bill applies it to financial institutions, crypto firms and online platforms.

The committee rejected a broader wealth tax including crypto and a bid by centre-right MP Paul Midy to make up to €1,000 a year of crypto payments tax-free.

What happens next

On Friday, the committee voted down the revenue part of the government’s 2027 budget bill, which covers taxes, by 31 votes to 3.

France’s constitution requires the full Assembly to debate the government’s original budget, with committee changes normally put to MPs as amendments.

With the revenue part rejected, none carry over, so the crypto amendments must be re-tabled from Tuesday.

MPs vote again on the revenue part on 20 October and the whole bill on 17 November, before the Senate takes over. Last year, they threw out the revenue part by 404 votes to 1, wiping out their changes.

The French Parliament has until 10 December to pass the budget, after which the government can enact it by ordinance.

With France’s 10-year borrowing costs briefly topping 5% this month for the first time since 2002 and parties eyeing next spring’s presidential election, the minority government faces an uphill battle to pass the budget.