- An occasional investor pays tax only when crypto is sold for euros, used to buy goods or services, or swapped with a cash top-up. Swapping one crypto-asset for another is not taxed.
- The net gain is taxed at a flat 31.4%: 12.8% income tax plus 18.6% social levies (rate from the 2025 income year, after the CSG increase). You can opt for the progressive income tax scale instead.
- If your household’s total sale prices in a year are €305 or less, the gains are exempt. Above that, all gains of the year are taxed. A net loss cannot be carried forward.
- Frequent, professional-style trading is taxed as non-commercial profits (BNC), and so are mining and staking, according to the tax authority.
- The wealth tax (IFI) covers only real estate, and the exit tax covers shares and securities, not crypto you hold directly.
This page covers income tax for private individuals who are tax resident in France and hold crypto. How to declare it, and the forms, are on filing and deadlines; crypto held by a company is on business tax. It is general information, not tax advice.
How it works
Gains made by private individuals who sell crypto occasionally, as part of managing their private wealth, are taxed under article 150 VH bis of the General Tax Code (CGI). The tax authority (DGFiP) explains the rules in its official guidance, the BOFiP (BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30), and on impots.gouv.fr. The tax is calculated for the whole tax household (foyer fiscal), not per person.
What is taxed
- Taxable: selling crypto for euros or another official currency, exchanging it for goods, paying for a service with it, and swapping crypto for crypto when you also receive or pay a cash top-up (soulte).
- Not taxed at the time: swapping one crypto-asset for another without a cash top-up. The tax is deferred (sursis d’imposition) and these swaps do not have to be declared. Platform and network fees paid in crypto as part of such a swap are deferred too.
- Exempt: all taxable sales of the year, if the total of the sale prices of the household (not the gains) is €305 or less. Above €305, every sale of the year is taxed, including the small ones.
Gains and losses of all sales in the same year are added up. A net loss can only be set off against crypto gains of the same year: it cannot be set off against other gains and cannot be carried forward to later years.
The portfolio formula
France does not match each coin you sell with its own purchase. It looks at your whole portfolio of crypto-assets. For each taxable sale:
Gain = sale price − (total acquisition price × sale price ÷ total value of the portfolio at the time of the sale)
- The sale price is what you receive, in euros, minus the fees of the sale (on proof). Fees are only deducted from the first term, not in the fraction.
- The total acquisition price is everything you paid in euros, goods or services for all your crypto bought before the sale, minus the part of the purchase cost already used in earlier taxable sales. Swaps without a cash top-up do not change it.
- The total value of the portfolio is the value of all your crypto-assets at the moment of the sale, across all exchanges and wallets.
- All amounts are in euros; amounts in other currencies are converted at the exchange rate on the day of each transaction.
Rates
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Income tax, flat rate (PFU) on net gains | 12.8% |
| Social levies on investment and wealth income, from the 2025 income year (CSG 10.6%, CRDS 0.5%, solidarity levy 7.5%) | 18.6% |
| Total flat tax, 2025 and 2026 income years | 31.4% |
| Total flat tax, 2024 income year and earlier (social levies 17.2%) | 30% |
| Exemption threshold (total sale prices of the household per year) | €305 |
The Social Security Financing Act for 2026 (law 2025-1403 of 30 December 2025) raised the general CSG rate from 9.2% to 10.6%. The tax authority’s 2026 income tax guide says the increase applies to wealth income (revenus du patrimoine) from the 2025 income year, declared in 2026, and to investment income from 1 January 2026. Crypto gains are wealth income for the social levies, and impots.gouv.fr gives the flat tax as 31.4%. Real estate gains, rental income and life insurance stay at 9.2% CSG, but that exception does not cover crypto.
Option for the progressive scale. Instead of the 12.8% flat income tax you can choose the progressive income tax scale by ticking box 3CN in the return. The option covers all crypto gains of the household for that year, is separate from the option for dividends and interest, and becomes irrevocable once the filing deadline has passed. The 18.6% social levies remain due either way; with the option, 6.8 points of the CSG are deductible from your taxable income of the year in which you pay them. The option usually only helps households with a low marginal tax rate.
A worked example
Our own example, using the formula of article 150 VH bis: a single person bought crypto for €10,000 in total in 2024 and has made no taxable sale before. In 2026 the whole portfolio is worth €30,000. She sells part of it for €6,000 in euros, with no fees, and makes no other sale that year.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Part of the purchase cost used by this sale | €10,000 × €6,000 ÷ €30,000 | €2,000 |
| Gain | €6,000 − €2,000 | €4,000 |
| Income tax at 12.8% | €4,000 × 12.8% | €512 |
| Social levies at 18.6% | €4,000 × 18.6% | €744 |
| Total tax | €512 + €744 | €1,256 (31.4%) |
| Total acquisition price left for later sales | €10,000 − €2,000 | €8,000 |
If she had sold for €300 in total that year, she would owe nothing, because the total sale price is not above €305. Had she swapped part of her bitcoin for ether instead of selling it for euros, nothing would be taxed and nothing would change in the formula. This is an illustration, not a tax calculation for your situation.
Occasional investor or professional trader
The flat tax applies to gains made in managing your private wealth, whatever the number of transactions. Since 1 January 2023 the tax authority distinguishes two other cases:
- Trading as if it were a profession (BNC). If you buy, sell or swap crypto “dans des conditions analogues à celles qui caractérisent une activité professionnelle”, the profits are non-commercial profits (bénéfices non commerciaux, BNC). impots.gouv.fr gives as an example investors who make numerous and sophisticated transactions throughout the year with the same tools and techniques as professional traders. BNC profits are taxed at the progressive scale plus social levies, either with a flat 34% allowance (micro-BNC) or with actual costs deducted (déclaration contrôlée).
- A commercial business (BIC). If buying and reselling crypto is a commercial activity in the sense of the Commercial Code, the profits are industrial and commercial profits (BIC), under the normal BIC rules.
The tax authority does not publish a fixed number of trades or an amount at which you become a professional trader; it is judged case by case.
Mining and staking
impots.gouv.fr says: “Les bénéfices issus des activités de minage ou de staking sont imposés dans la catégorie des bénéfices non commerciaux (BNC).” The BOFiP explains the reason for mining: the reward is not a capital gain on an investment but payment for taking part in creating or running the network. So rewards from mining and staking are income in the BNC category, taxed at the progressive scale plus social levies, with the micro-BNC allowance or actual costs. Crypto you later sell from these rewards falls under the rules above when you sell it. The tax authority does not publish how to value the rewards at the moment you receive them.
Staking, DeFi, airdrops and NFTs
- Staking. Taxed as BNC, see mining and staking.
- NFTs. Law 2026-534 of 25 June 2026 (article 91) limited article 150 VH bis to crypto-assets covered by the EU MiCA Regulation and added article 150 VH ter for unique, non-fungible crypto-assets (NFTs). For sales from 1 January 2026, a gain on an NFT is taxed “suivant le régime applicable aux biens ou droits qu’ils représentent”, so an NFT that represents a work of art is taxed like the artwork. NFTs held through a foreign platform must now also be declared (see foreign accounts).
- Airdrops, lending and DeFi. In October 2026 we found no published position of the tax authority on airdrops, crypto lending, liquidity pools or other DeFi (decentralized finance) activity. Swaps on a decentralized exchange are crypto-to-crypto swaps and are deferred like any other; whether income from lending or liquidity pools counts as BNC like staking is not stated.
If you earn large amounts from staking or DeFi, ask a tax adviser or your tax office before you file.
Moving to or from France
You are tax resident in France if your home (foyer) or main place of stay is in France, if you work there as your main activity, or if the center of your economic interests is there (CGI article 4 B). Only one of these criteria is needed. The crypto regime applies to people who are tax resident in France.
- Moving to France. The formula uses the prices you actually paid for your crypto. We found no rule that resets the acquisition price of crypto you bring with you, so keep the purchase records from before your move. Your foreign exchange accounts must be declared from your first French return (see foreign accounts).
- Leaving France. The French exit tax (CGI article 167 bis) taxes unrealized gains on “droits sociaux, titres ou droits” (company shares and securities) of people who were resident for at least six of the last ten years and hold at least €800,000 of them or 50% of a company’s profits. impots.gouv.fr lists no crypto-assets in its scope, so crypto you hold directly is not taxed when you leave. Shares in a company that holds crypto are different.
Crypto providers report your data to the country where you are tax resident (see DAC8), so tell them when you move.
Wealth tax and inheritance
France’s wealth tax, the real estate wealth tax (impôt sur la fortune immobilière, IFI), applies to households whose net real estate assets are above €1.3 million on 1 January 2026. Its base is real estate held directly or through companies. Crypto is not part of it: the tax authority’s 2026 guide describes the taxable assets as real estate and real estate rights only.
Gift and inheritance tax (droits de succession) on crypto, and how an heir’s purchase price is set, are covered in this guide to crypto inheritance in France.
Upcoming changes
Law 2026-534 of 25 June 2026 on social and tax fraud has already changed the rules for 2026: NFTs are taxed under their own article (see above), the wording of the tax code moves from “actifs numériques” to “crypto-assets” as defined by MiCA, and from 1 July 2026 the tax authority can seize crypto held by a provider for unpaid tax and have it sold. A private member’s bill “visant à adapter le cadre juridique et fiscal applicable aux crypto-actifs” (no. 3090) was tabled in the National Assembly on 23 July 2026. At the time of writing (October 2026) it has not been debated, and it is not law.
Sources
- impots.gouv.fr: Comment déclarer les plus ou moins values sur cessions d’actifs numériques (cryptomonnaies…) ? (updated 17 July 2026) (last checked October 2026)
- BOFiP: BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30-10, Cession d’actifs numériques à titre occasionnel, champ d’application (last checked October 2026)
- BOFiP: BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30-20, Détermination de la plus ou moins-value (last checked October 2026)
- BOFiP: BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30-30, Modalités d’imposition et obligations déclaratives (last checked October 2026)
- impots.gouv.fr: Brochure pratique IR 2026, Plus-values de cession d’actifs numériques (last checked October 2026)
- impots.gouv.fr: Brochure pratique IR 2026, Principales nouveautés (CSG increase, LFSS 2026) (last checked October 2026)
- Service-Public.fr: Prélèvements sociaux (CSG, CRDS…) sur les revenus du patrimoine et de placements (last checked October 2026)
- Légifrance: Loi n° 2026-534 du 25 juin 2026 relative à la lutte contre les fraudes sociales et fiscales, article 91 (last checked October 2026)
- Légifrance: Loi n° 2026-534 du 25 juin 2026, article 90 (last checked October 2026)
- BOFiP: BOI-IR-CHAMP-10, Personnes imposables et domicile fiscal (last checked October 2026)
- impots.gouv.fr: Je quitte la France, suis-je concerné par « l’Exit Tax » ? (last checked October 2026)
- impots.gouv.fr: Brochure pratique 2026, Impôt sur la fortune immobilière (last checked October 2026)
- Assemblée nationale: Proposition de loi n° 3090 visant à adapter le cadre juridique et fiscal applicable aux crypto-actifs (last checked October 2026)
This page is general information, not tax advice. Rules and rates change, so check the official sources above before you act.