Stablecoin swaps: France plans what Germany taxes

France wants to close a tax gap that Germany never had. On Wednesday, October 7, 2026, the finance committee of the National Assembly adopted an amendment to the 2027 budget bill under which swapping crypto assets into stablecoins will be taxed in future. It is due to apply from January 1, 2027. The amendment was tabled by Nicolas Sansu, a deputy for the left-wing GDR group. The same day, the committee adopted a second amendment that favours investors: losses on crypto assets should in future be carried forward for ten years.

None of this is settled. The changes have to win a majority again in the plenary of the National Assembly, after which the Senate takes them up. The view across the border is worth having all the same, because it shows how strict the German rule on swaps already is, and which consequence of it many investors overlook.

What France wants to change about stablecoin swaps

The rule in France so far: swapping one crypto asset for another incurs no tax. Only when an investor cashes out into euros or buys something with crypto does the gain come under the French flat-rate tax. That also covers swaps into stablecoins. Sansu calls it a loophole in the law in his explanatory note: stablecoins have long been used like money, they can be spent and used to buy other crypto assets, yet the gain on the way in stays untaxed. The United Kingdom and Italy, he argues, have already settled the matter differently.