France's Assembly Votes Down Budget, Sending Crypto Tax Plans to the Senate

France's lower house didn't just trim the 2027 budget — it torched the revenue section outright. The National Assembly voted 458–0 against it on Nov. 4, with two abstentions, according to the official vote record. Under the Assembly's own rules, rejecting the first part means the whole bill is treated as rejected at first reading, so amendments deputies had individually waved through never became an approved budget.

That collapse took two crypto measures down with it. Article 4 octies in the provisional text would have ended tax deferral on swaps into electronic-money tokens under EU crypto rules, starting Jan. 1, 2027 — meaning a gain could be taxed even if the investor never cashed out. The other would have forced declarations of directly held wallets not parked with a crypto service provider once total holdings hit €100,000, measured each Dec. 31.

The wallet rule had real momentum before the floor gave way. Deputies approved it on Nov. 3 by 150 votes to 44. A third adopted amendment would have raised a proposed penalty for stonewalling tax-authority information requests to €50,000 per request, up from €10,000, covering financial institutions, crypto service providers and platform operators. Amendment I-3898, sponsored by Nicolas Sansu, also proposed reworking how acquisition costs and gains get calculated.

Deadline drama wasn't the trigger here — the Assembly still had until Nov. 17 at midnight Paris time to finish its 40-day first-reading window. It simply reached rejection first. The Defiant previously reported the stablecoin provision was still pending after earlier delays to the revenue-section vote.

Next stop: the Senate, where the crypto proposals can be reintroduced as amendments rather than leaning on their earlier Assembly approval. The Senate's published calendar puts the general budget debate on Nov. 20, with revenue-section articles examined from Nov. 23. Article 40 of France's organic budget law offers a fallback if the Assembly fails to vote on a full bill in time — the government sends its original proposal, possibly including amendments it accepts, and the Senate gets 15 days to decide. Nothing is permanently barred yet.