France’s National Assembly has approved a proposal requiring taxpayers to declare self-custodied crypto holdings worth at least €100,000 at year-end, with penalties reaching €10,000, as lawmakers debate the country’s 2027 budget.
Summary
- Lawmakers approved Amendment I-2701 by 150 votes to 44, with eight abstentions on Nov. 3.
- The €100,000 threshold would apply to total qualifying holdings valued on Dec. 31.
- Government opposition focused on whether dishonest holders would comply with a self-reporting requirement.
- The proposal still needs to survive the remaining budget process before becoming law.
According to the National Assembly’s amendment, the obligation would cover crypto held directly without a crypto-asset service provider. Charles de Courson, a member of the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories parliamentary group, introduced the measure alongside six colleagues.
The vote approved an amendment during the budget’s first reading. It did not complete passage of the Finance Bill, which still faces further parliamentary consideration, including Senate scrutiny.
France’s crypto proposal uses a year-end threshold
The text would insert the requirement into Article 1649 bis C of France’s tax code, which already governs declarations involving crypto accounts and wallets held through foreign organizations.
Its wording sets the threshold at “greater than or equal to” €100,000 and measures the total value of qualifying crypto on Dec. 31 of the relevant year. It does not use the highest balance reached during the year.
The sponsors’ explanatory statement describes a notification obligation and a penalty mechanism reaching €10,000 for failure to declare. The proposal does not introduce an annual tax rate on the holdings being reported.
As crypto.news previously reported, the Finance Committee had backed an earlier wallet disclosure proposal during its October budget discussions. The latest vote brings the measure through the full Assembly’s amendment stage.
Several practical details remain outside the amendment’s wording, including the information holders would submit and the pricing source used to establish a euro value.
Government questions whether holders would comply
During the parliamentary debate, Public Action and Accounts Minister David Amiel opposed the proposals, questioning whether declarations made by holders themselves would capture serious tax fraud.
Amiel argued that someone committing fraud could simply decline to report their assets. He favored collecting information through intermediaries while technical questions surrounding self-custody remained unresolved.
Finance Committee general rapporteur Philippe Juvin supported the principle of disclosure but questioned how lawmakers should choose between competing thresholds of €5,000, €50,000 and €100,000.
The Assembly rejected the two lower-threshold amendments before approving de Courson’s version. Juvin left the decision on that amendment to lawmakers; Amiel maintained the government’s opposition.
Defending his proposal, de Courson said a Dec. 31 declaration would help tax authorities identify the largest holdings.
Bitcoin advocates challenge the collection of wallet data
In an Oct. 28 research note, the Institut National de Bitcoin recommended rejecting the self-custody reporting amendments and seeking their removal in the Senate if adopted.
The advocacy organization argued that declaring ownership would create a different obligation from reporting taxable gains. It compared directly held crypto with gold, jewelry, and art kept by their owners.
Its privacy concerns focused on what a future decree might require. Public wallet addresses can connect an identified holder with transaction histories, while an extended public key can reveal multiple receiving addresses.
The institute said the amendment does not specify access controls, consultation records or retention periods for the information collected. Its note acknowledged that it had not been reviewed by an outside tax lawyer.
Separately, Paris lawyers Antoine Gouin and Hugo Marchadier explained in an August legal analysis that the existing foreign-wallet declaration rule does not cover wallets whose owners control their keys without a service provider.
DAC8 already covers transactions through crypto providers
The European Commission’s DAC8 guidance requires reporting providers to collect information on reportable transactions involving EU-resident users from Jan. 1, 2026.
Covered transactions include withdrawals to self-custody wallets when a reporting provider handles the transfer. The Commission places the first reporting cycle in 2027, subject to domestic deadlines.
France’s reporting preparations have included scrutiny of potentially taxable crypto activity. Chainalysis estimated $9.4 billion for 2025 across income, realized gains and payments, without treating that total as unpaid tax.
In the United States, Treasury’s June 2024 broker regulations established gross-proceeds reporting beginning in 2026 for 2025 digital-asset sales. Reporting tax-basis information for certain assets begins in 2027 for sales made during 2026.
