France does something that makes it unusually forgiving for an active crypto investor: a crypto-to-crypto swap is not a taxable event for a private investor. Tax is triggered only when crypto leaves the crypto world — a disposal to fiat, or spending it on goods. When that happens, the occasional investor's gain is taxed at a single 30% flat rate, the Prélèvement Forfaitaire Unique (PFU). A holder can swap across dozens of tokens all year, realise nothing for tax purposes, and only meet the tax system on the way back to euros. That combination — a flat rate on exit and no tax on the swaps in between — is the defining shape of French crypto tax.
The 30% PFU: one flat rate, two components
The PFU, often called the flat tax, applies to an occasional investor's capital gains on digital assets at a single headline rate of 30%. That figure is not one tax but two stacked together:
- 12.8% income tax on the gain.
- 17.2% social levies (prélèvements sociaux).
The two add to 30%, applied to the net gain on a taxable disposal. There is no holding-period distinction inside the PFU — an asset held a week and an asset held five years are taxed the same way on exit. The flat rate is the default treatment for the ordinary private investor, and for most holders it is the figure that matters.
The swap rule: tax only on exit
The feature that sets France apart is when the tax is triggered. For a private investor, exchanging one digital asset for another is outside the scope of tax — it is not a realisation event. The taxable moment arrives only on a disposal to fiat currency or a use of crypto to purchase goods or services.
The practical consequences are considerable:
- An investor who rotates between tokens all year, never converting to euros, realises no taxable gain from those swaps.
- The tax calculation attaches to the cash-out, not to the trading activity that preceded it.
- An active trader who stays inside crypto faces a far simpler position than the same trader would in a country where every swap is a disposal.
This is why France, despite a 30% headline rate, is often gentler in practice for someone who trades actively but cashes out rarely.
The portfolio-wide weighted average (PMP)
When a taxable disposal does happen, France does not ask which coins were sold. It uses a weighted-average cost method — the Prix Moyen Pondéré (PMP) — computed across the whole portfolio. The gain on a disposal to fiat is found with a portfolio-wide formula: the proceeds, reduced by the share of the total acquisition cost that the disposed value represents against the total portfolio value at that moment.
Two things follow from this:
- There is no lot selection. A holder cannot nominate cheap or expensive units; the basis is a single blended figure spread across everything held.
- Every acquisition feeds one running average, so the cost applied to a disposal reflects the entire holding, not a particular purchase.
This portfolio-wide method, paired with the non-taxable swap rule, is exactly why active French traders who stay in crypto are treated leniently. HQ Wealth applies the French weighted-average method and the swap treatment in a France tax pack, so the basis on a euro disposal is computed across the whole portfolio rather than from a single lot the method does not recognise.
Thresholds, the elective scale, and professional traders
Three refinements shape what is actually owed.
- The small disposals threshold. If total disposal proceeds for the year stay at or below 305 euros, the gains are not taxed. It is a modest floor that exempts incidental activity.
- Electing the progressive scale. A filer may choose to be taxed under the progressive income-tax scale instead of the 30% PFU. For someone whose marginal position makes the scale cheaper, the election can lower the bill — but it is a choice to weigh, not an automatic default.
- Habitual or professional traders fall outside the PFU entirely. Activity carried on in a habitual, business-like way is assessed under the BIC regime (industrial and commercial profits) at progressive rates, rather than the flat tax that applies to the occasional investor. Where the line sits between occasional and habitual is a facts-and-circumstances judgement.
Filing and the wider system
The gains are reported on the annual income-tax return, the Formulaire 2042, with the capital-gains detail carried on the Formulaire 2074. Tax-advantaged wrappers sit outside this calculation under their own rules — notably the PEA (equity savings plan) and the PER (retirement savings plan).
None of this is advice for a specific situation. Whether the PFU or the elective scale is better, whether activity has tipped into the BIC regime, and how the PMP applies to a complex history are all judgements worth confirming with a professional in the jurisdiction. The general shape, though, is consistent: swaps are not taxed, exits are, and the basis is a portfolio-wide average.
Takeaway: France taxes an occasional investor's crypto at a flat 30% PFU — 12.8% income tax plus 17.2% social levies — but only on a disposal to fiat or to buy goods, never on a crypto-to-crypto swap. The basis is a portfolio-wide weighted average, a small proceeds threshold exempts incidental activity, and the progressive scale can be elected where it is lower.