France supports a proposal for the declaration of self-managed crypto assets worth 100,000 euros

The French National Assembly approved a proposal that requires taxpayers to declare self-managed crypto assets worth at least 100,000 euros by the end of the year. Failure to declare such assets could result in fines of up to 10,000 euros. Currently, lawmakers are debating France's 2027 budget bill.

• On November 3rd, the members of parliament passed Amendment I-2701 with 150 votes in favor, 44 votes against, and 8 abstentions.
• The €100,000 threshold will apply to the total eligible position value as of December 31 of each year.
• The main objections from the government focus on whether dishonest holders will comply with this voluntary declaration requirement.
• Before this proposal becomes law, it still needs to go through the remaining legislative procedures for the budget bill.

According to the amendment proposed by the National Parliament, this obligation will apply to crypto assets that are held directly by individuals, rather than through crypto asset service providers. Members of the Liberal, Independent, Overseas, and Territorial Parliamentary Group Charles, de, Courson along with six other colleagues, jointly proposed this measure.

This vote was on an amendment passed during the first reading of the budget bill. This does not mean that the Fiscal Act has completed the legislative process; it still needs to undergo further parliamentary review, including examination by the Senate.

France's encryption proposal adopts a year-end threshold

This text intends to incorporate this requirement into Article 1649 bis C of French tax law. This provision currently regulates the reporting obligations for encrypted accounts and wallets held by foreign entities.

The amendment sets the threshold at “greater than or equal to” 100,000 euros, and uses the total value of eligible crypto assets as of December 31 of the relevant year as the measurement standard, rather than the highest balance reached throughout the year.

The explanatory document from the proposal initiator states that this is a reporting obligation, and there are corresponding penalties in place; a maximum fine of 10,000 euros may be imposed for non-compliance. The proposal does not apply an annual tax rate to the reported positions.

As previously reported by crypto.news, the French Fiscal Council supported an earlier version of the wallet disclosure proposal during the budget discussions in October. The latest vote indicates that this measure has now passed the amendment stage in the National Assembly as a whole.

However, several practical details have not yet been included in the amendment text, such as what information holders need to submit and what pricing source should be used to determine the value of the euro.

The government questions whether holders will comply

During the parliamentary debates, French Minister of Public Action and Public Accounts David Amiel opposed these proposals and questioned whether the declarations made by the holders themselves could truly cover cases of serious tax fraud.

Amiel believes that if someone is engaging in fraud, they are very likely to choose not to declare their assets. He prefers to gather information through intermediaries and also points out that the technical issues surrounding self-hosting have yet to be resolved.

The chief rapporteur of the Finance Committee, Philippe Juvin, supports the principle of disclosure, but raises questions about how legislators should make choices between the different thresholds of 5,000 euros, 50,000 euros, and 100,000 euros.

The National Assembly first vetoed two amendments with lower thresholds, and then passed the de Courson versions. Juvin left the decision on whether to support the amendment to the members of parliament; Amiel maintained the government's opposition stance.

de and Courson stated in their defense of their proposal that filing by December 31 would help tax authorities identify the largest holdings.

Bitcoin advocates question wallet data collection

In a research note dated October 28th, the French National Bitcoin Institute ( Institut National de Bitcoin ) recommended that these self-managed declaration amendments be rejected; if the amendments are passed, efforts should be made to remove them at the Senate stage.

The advocacy group stated that declaring ownership would constitute a different obligation from declaring taxable income. The group compares the encrypted assets held directly by them with gold, jewelry, and artworks that are kept by the owners themselves.

Their privacy concerns focus on the requirements that may be imposed by future regulations. Making wallet addresses public could link identified holders to their transaction histories, while exposing multiple receiving addresses by extending public keys.

The institute stated that the amendment does not specify access control, record-keeping, or retention periods for the collected information. The explanatory document also acknowledges that it has not been reviewed by external tax lawyers.

According to a legal analysis by Parisian lawyers Antoine Gouin and Hugo Marchadier in August, the current regulations for foreign wallet declarations do not cover those wallets whose private keys are under the direct control of their owners and which do not rely on service providers.

DAC8 has overridden transactions conducted through encryption service providers.

Guidelines from the European Commission regarding DAC8 require that reporting obligation providers collect information on reportable transactions involving EU resident users starting from January 1, 2026.

The transactions that are subject to this requirement include withdrawal transactions from self-hosted wallets when reporting obligation providers process transfers. The European Commission has set the initial reporting period for 2027, although the exact dates still depend on the national deadlines of each country.

In its preparation for declarations, France is also examining encrypted activities that may be subject to taxation. Chainalysis estimates that the related amount in 2025 will be 9.4 billion US dollars, covering income, realized gains, and payments, but this total is not considered as unpaid taxes.

In the United States, the broker regulations introduced by the Treasury Department in June 2024 established reporting requirements for the total revenue from digital asset sales starting in 2026. The reporting of tax base information for certain assets began in 2027 and applies to sales that occurred in 2026.