French lawmakers will deliver a solemn vote on the first part of the 2027 budget on the afternoon of 3 November, a session that will determine the fate of a tax on crypto-to-stablecoin conversions adopted by a single vote earlier this month. The measure, passed 38 votes to 37 with 25 abstentions on 16 October, would apply the French flat tax rate of 31.4% to gains realised when crypto holders convert their assets into stablecoins, treating the conversion as a taxable event rather than waiting for an exit into euros.
The amendment, numbered I-3898, was tabled by Nicolas Sansu of the GDR group. Under its terms, an investor converting a 40,000 euro gain into a stablecoin would owe 12,560 euros in tax, due from 1 January 2027 if the text survives the coming weeks of parliamentary manoeuvring.
The amendment's scope touches on a distinction drawn from MiCA, the European Union's markets-in-crypto-assets framework: USDC, which complies with the regulation, would qualify under the new tax, while Tether's USDT, which does not meet MiCA's requirements, would not. Two further amendments addressing exit tax rules for crypto holdings above 800,000 euros remain in play, one filed again by Sansu (I-3904) and another by the Socialist group (I-3432). A separate proposal from Charles de Courson of LIOT, amendment I-2701, would require declaration of self-hosted wallets holding more than 100,000 euros.
A budget process already in disarray
The stablecoin tax resurfaces against a backdrop of wider turmoil in France's public finances. On Friday 23 October, the Social Security budget's revenue section was rejected by 115 votes to 1, with the bloc central of Ensemble pour la République, Les Démocrates and Horizons abstaining rather than backing the text. The government had targeted a Social Security deficit of 12.7 billion euros for 2027, against a shortfall of 21.8 billion euros this year, though the amended version of the text put the figure at 24 billion euros, according to LCP.
Cyrille Isaac-Sibille described the outcome bluntly: "The result is a text of insane irresponsibility." The Senate will take up the Social Security budget from 9 November, working from the government's original version rather than the amended one rejected in the Assembly. The constitutional 50-day window for the Social Security budget runs out at midnight on 26 November.
The state budget faces its own calendar pressure. Debates on the first part resumed on Tuesday 27 October and are due to conclude on Monday 2 November, ahead of the solemn vote the following day. Should the revenue section pass, deputies would then have until 17 November to vote on spending, with the overall 70-day constitutional deadline for the state budget expiring in mid-December. Last year, the equivalent revenue section was rejected by 404 votes to 1, a far heavier margin than the knife-edge result that greeted the stablecoin tax this time around. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has indicated the process is expected to run through to "December".
