Crypto Taxes in France: 2026 English Filing Guide

A French-resident household does not calculate private crypto gains with FIFO. Form 2086 uses a portfolio-wide formula at each taxable disposal. Ordinary private gains are generally subject to 12.8 percent income tax plus social levies, with a separate option for the progressive income tax scale. Crypto-to-crypto exchanges without a cash adjustment are deferred, while sales for fiat and payments for goods or services are taxable. Foreign custodial crypto accounts can also require Form 3916-3916 bis.

Short answer: fiat sales and payments are taxable; qualifying swaps are deferred

For a French tax resident acting privately, Article 150 VH bis covers gains and losses on disposals of digital assets. A sale for euros or another legal currency is taxable. Using crypto to buy goods or services is also a taxable disposal because the taxpayer receives non-crypto consideration.

An exchange of digital assets for other digital assets without a cash adjustment (soulte) benefits from deferral and is excluded from the annual €305 proceeds test. If cash or other non-digital consideration is received or paid, the rules become more complex and the adjustment must be captured. Calling every DEX transaction “tax-free” without checking the consideration is unsafe.

France uses a global portfolio formula, not FIFO

The official 2026 Form 2086 instructions calculate the gross gain or loss for each taxable disposal as:

Disposal price − [total acquisition price of the digital-asset portfolio × disposal price ÷ global portfolio value immediately before disposal].

The global portfolio value includes relevant digital assets and associated rights held across French and foreign exchanges, personal servers, and offline storage. It must be valued at each taxable disposal. The total acquisition price is adjusted for the fractions of initial capital already allocated to earlier taxable disposals. This is why a transaction-only gain or exchange-level FIFO result does not reproduce Form 2086.

Example: a household invested €10,000. Immediately before a €3,000 taxable cash-out, its complete digital-asset portfolio is worth €15,000. Ignoring fees and earlier capital fractions, the allocated acquisition amount is €10,000 × €3,000 ÷ €15,000 = €2,000. The gross gain is €1,000. A later cash-out must use the updated remaining acquisition capital.

Documented platform and network fees connected with the taxable disposal can reduce the disposal price under the form’s instructions. They are not inserted into the allocation quotient in the same way. A report should therefore preserve gross consideration, deductible disposal fees, global value, and remaining acquisition capital separately.

The default rate and the progressive option

Private gains under Article 150 VH bis are generally subject to 12.8 percent income tax plus social levies, commonly described as a combined 30 percent flat tax. A taxpayer may make an express, irrevocable annual election to use the progressive income tax scale for the household’s digital-asset gains by checking box 3CN on Form 2042 C.

The old article incorrectly said that this election necessarily applies to all capital income. The Form 2086 instructions state that the digital-asset election is global for the household’s digital-asset disposal gains but independent from the separate election for investment income and securities gains. Whether the progressive scale is better depends on taxable income, household circumstances, and the interaction with social levies.

The €305 rule is also frequently misunderstood. If total annual disposal proceeds for the tax household—excluding qualifying deferred crypto-to-crypto exchanges—do not exceed €305, the resulting gains are exempt. It is a gross-proceeds threshold, not a €305 gain allowance. Once proceeds exceed €305, gains are taxable from the first euro under the applicable calculation.

Professional-like activity is BNC under the current rule

Since 2023, impots.gouv.fr distinguishes private disposals from transactions carried out under conditions analogous to professional activity. The latter gains are taxed in the non-commercial profits category (bénéfices non commerciaux, BNC). The former article’s blanket statement that active traders move to BIC was outdated.

There is no official “100 trades” test. Skill, organization, tools, frequency, scale, time devoted, and the taxpayer’s actual conditions can all matter. High turnover alone is not a complete classification, and a label selected in software cannot decide the legal status.

Mining, staking, airdrops, lending, liquidity pools, and creator income should not be forced into the private disposal formula without first identifying the income source and acquisition value. French guidance and case facts can produce different categories and timing. Our France staking and DeFi guide explains the open data fields; professional activity is covered in the BNC activity guide.

Filing workflow: 2086, 2042 C, and foreign accounts

1. Identify every taxable disposal by the whole tax household.
2. Calculate each transaction on Form 2086 using the contemporaneous global portfolio value.
3. Report the household’s global gain on line 3AN or global loss on line 3BN of Form 2042 C.
4. Check 3CN only when expressly electing the progressive income tax scale.
5. Declare reportable foreign digital-asset accounts with Form 3916-3916 bis.

French residents must declare covered digital-asset accounts opened, held, used, or closed abroad. A self-custody wallet is not automatically the same as an account held with a foreign custodial provider, but hosted exchange accounts can be reportable even without a taxable sale. Preserve provider name, address, account identifier, opening and closing dates, and account ownership.

A global private loss on Form 2086 offsets private gains of the same year. The official form carries the current-year global result to 3BN; it does not create a general multi-year crypto loss carryforward. Read the France crypto loss guide before assuming that an unused negative result survives.

The complete French-language workflow is available in our French crypto tax guide.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• French tax authority: Form 2086 and 2026 instructions
• impots.gouv.fr: reporting digital-asset gains and losses
• impots.gouv.fr: Form 3916-3916 bis for foreign accounts

Substantively reviewed September 1, 2026. General information, not individualized French tax advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. For individual tax advice, consult a licensed tax professional.