France has rejected a draft law designed to favour the taxation of crypto profits. This is the fourth time that an effort to reach a compromise on crypto taxation policy has been rejected. The French crypto community is frustrated. What are the reasons?
For the fourth time, the lower house of parliament has rejected the amendments to the French financial law relating to crypto taxes. On 18th December the French news platform Capital questioned Alexandre Stachtchenko, managing director of the blockchain association La Chaintech, about the decision of the French parliament.
The Bitcoin news
On 13 November, Bitcoin news reported on the proposed legislation according to onlinebetrug. The bill provided that profits from the sale of crypto assets would be taxed at 30 percent. The tax rate would thus be identical to that for capital gains such as bonds and shares. This could have been a strong sign of crypto-acceptance as the law would have raised Bitcoin & Co. to the same level as traditional investments. Also under discussion was the introduction of a tax benefit that would take into account whether the gain is from regular or occasional crypto transactions.
Another bill proposed to increase the annual transaction volume in the Tax Exemption Act from a total of 305 to 3,000 euros or up to 5,000 euros. However, the chairman, who rejected this proposal, was of the opinion that the current 305 euros were already „quite cheap“.
Terrible Bitcoin news
The French crypto community is more than unhappy about the government’s negative attitude. Also surprise would be a comprehensible reaction to this current decision, since France had been quite positive about crypto issues so far. Four years ago, Europe’s first Bitcoin news Center opened in Paris and next year Bitcoin news will even be available in tobacco shops. The government’s reluctance to treat crypto transactions more fairly from a tax point of view than traditional investments seems to push these advances into the background. Stachtchenko is particularly frustrated about the lack of justification:
„The most frustrating thing about all this is that none of the rejections were justified by the rapporteur or the minister. In short, the message the Community receives in France and abroad is terrible: ‚Take all the risks, we will not support you, and the money you earn to take the risks will go to the treasury‘. It’s dramatic.“
However, the decision-makers pointed out that they wanted to discuss the legislative proposals again once Bitcoin & Co. had gained more acceptance in the country. What sounds a bit like a circular end, Stachtchenko considers a delaying tactic. Until then it would be too late, France’s connection to the worldwide crypto trade would already be missed.