France Crypto Tax Guide 2025: Latest DGFiP Updates

Fortunately, some crypto activities are tax-exempt in France. These activities include:

💳  Buying crypto with EUR.

🔁  Transferring crypto between your own wallets.

🔒  Holding crypto.

💸  Capital gains from trading crypto for crypto - including stablecoins, tokens, and NFTs.

Generally speaking, the most common crypto-related activities are subject to capital gains tax treatment.

However, there are some activities that are treated as ordinary income.

In France, cryptocurrency is primarily taxed as a movable property, with exceptions for mining rewards and professional trading, which fall under the BNC (Bénéfices Non-Commerciaux) tax regime.

This is all as a result of a relatively recent guidance update in 2023. Prior to the new guidance, if you were trading frequently or with high volumes, the DGFiP (French tax authority) may have classified you as a professional trader, subject to the progressive BIC tax rate (0-45%).  Meanwhile, if you were a long-term holder making occasional trades, you were more likely taxed as an occasional trader under the 30% flat PFU tax (12.8% income tax + 17.2% social security). The DGFiP decided all this on a case-by-case basis, considering the total investment, trading volume, and frequency of crypto sales.

However, under the updated guidance, the rules are simpler: 

• Trading frequency and volume no longer determine your tax status.
• If you sell crypto as part of managing your private assets, you will automatically fall under the PFU flat rate tax (30%) — regardless of trade volume or frequency.
• Occasional traders may opt for progressive taxation instead which may be beneficial for low-income earners in reducing their tax rate slightly.
• Professional traders are now defined as those engaging in crypto transactions in professional-like conditions, such as using advanced trading tools, algorithms, or high-frequency strategies.
• Professional traders are now taxed under BNC, the same as mining rewards at up to 45%. Tax is based on net profits (income minus expenses).

• If the annual turnover is under €77,700, traders can use the micro-BNC scheme, benefiting from a 34% tax deduction and being taxed on only 66% of their income.

The DGFiP is clear that the only disposal that counts from a tax perspective is selling crypto for a fiat currency, like EUR. Trading crypto is not viewed as a disposal for tax purposes.

There is a small tax free allowance of €305 annually. If you earn under this amount, your capital gains would be tax free.

While there’s no specific guidance from the DGFiP, it’s also possible that spending crypto on goods or services may be classed as a disposal for tax purposes, given that the process of doing this generally involves disposing of crypto for fiat currency. 

The DGFiP guidance is clear that crypto mining rewards are categorized as non-commerical income and subject to BNC tax. 

Due to the limited guidance available from the DGFiP on many other crypto transactions like staking rewards, airdrops, and so on, there are many transactions where it’s unclear what the tax implications may be. As such, it’s advisable to speak to an experienced crypto accountant if you have any of these transactions.

You can see the latest BNC Income Tax rates here.

First, calculate your cost basis, which includes the purchase price of your crypto along with any related fees, such as transaction or exchange fees. For example, if you bought 1 SOL for €150 and incurred a €10 purchase fee, your total cost basis for that ETH would be €160.

If you acquired crypto through other means without a direct purchase price, its cost basis is determined by the asset’s fair market value in EUR on the date you received it.

Most investors aren’t selling singular crypto assets like in our previous example - they’re selling multiple assets of the same kind on multiple platforms. For example, you’ve acquired 5 BTC over your trading history. How do you know which cost base to use to calculate your subsequent gain or loss when you later sell BTC?

This is where a cost basis method helps, and the DGFiP requires using the plus values de cessions d'actifs numériques formula (PVCT method) to calculate your cost basis when selling multiple assets of the same kind. This method factors in your entire portfolio's acquisition cost relative to the sale proceeds. The formula is:

Sale price – (total acquisition costs × [sale price ÷ total portfolio value])

If it seems complicated, don’t worry; you can use a crypto tax calculator like Koinly to do this automatically on your behalf.

Once you’ve determined your cost basis, subtract this amount from your sale price to calculate your gain or loss from the transaction. If you have multiple assets of the same kind, use the PVCT method.

If you have a gain, you’ll pay a 30% tax on this gain (unless you opt for progressive taxation instead). If you have a loss, you can offset your capital loss against your capital gains to reduce your overall tax bill. 

If you’ve got crypto mining rewards, use the fair market value of your crypto in EUR on the day you received it to determine your income.

The DGFiP does not have any guidance on the tax implications of lost or stolen crypto. You should consult with a tax advisor to seek advice on whether you may be able to claim a capital loss in your specific circumstances.

Once you’ve calculated your taxable gains and any non-commercial income, you’ll report this online using the FranceConnect platform. Paper forms are available, but only for those unable to access the online service. The forms you may need are:

• Formulaire 2042 – The primary tax return form required for all taxpayers to report their income. It can be filed individually or jointly if married.
• Formulaire 2086 – Attached to Form 2042, this form is used to declare capital gains and losses from selling crypto for fiat currency.
• Formulaire 2042 C – Required for reporting mining income or other earnings classified under BNC (Bénéfices Non-Commerciaux).
• Formulaire 3916-bis – Used to disclose any cryptocurrency accounts held outside France.

Tracking your cost basis according to DGFiP guidelines, calculating gains and losses, and determining the fair market value of non-commercial income can be complex for active investors. That's why many opt for a crypto tax calculator like Koinly to streamline the process.

With Koinly, you can connect to Kraken via SSO (OAuth) for automatic data import or manually upload your Kraken account history as a CSV file.

Once your transaction data is uploaded, Koinly will calculate your cost basis according to the PVCT method and then calculate your gains, losses, and income before finally generating your crypto tax reports for easy filing.

You can’t legally avoid tax on your crypto without facing penalties from DGFiP, but you can reduce your tax bill by:

💎  Trade crypto for crypto - your profits are tax free!
♥️  Cash out to stablecoins
🔍  Track and harvest your unrealized losses to identify opportunities to harvest these losses (Koinly has a tax optimization tool to help you do this!)

Now that you understand how your digital asset investments are taxed, why not continue your crypto journey by checking out our Learn Center.