The President of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly of France, Eric Woerth, introduced a new amendment for the declaration and taxation of capital gains for the sale of cryptocurrencies throughout the French territory. This project could adjust the tax on crypto-active substances by 30% for next year.
According to the press report, said the amendment is part of a financial bill that will enter into force in 2019 if approved next week by the National Assembly. With this, the incorporation to the system will be allowed a taxation of the capital income of France.
This reform establishes that from the first of January of the following year all the benefits generated by the sale of cryptocurrencies within the French territory will be subject to a single 30% rate. With this, cryptocurrencies will be subject to the tax on mobile capital income in French territory. So also the cataloging as cryptographic assets “convertible to currencies of legal tender” as well as the dollar and the euro.
If the amendment is approved, despite the fact that taxes appear to be a considerable increase throughout France, this adjustment will imply a decrease in the amount to be paid for tax obligations. This is due to the fact that the decision issued by the Council of State of France last April is currently in effect, where the tax on cryptoactives is calculated at 19% for profits; however, a total of 17.2% for social prevention that yields a total of 36.2% in taxes.
The provision of the State Council clarified that there are a total of 3 possible tax regimes to be applicable to cryptoactives, which can vary depending on whether the sale of cryptocurrencies is occasional, habitual or by mining activities. In this way, the decision would have classified the cryptoactives as a “good-property”, this category made it possible to reduce the fixed tax rate.
However, Eric Woerth believes that the French cryptocurrency market should “clarify and simplify its tax regime”, which is why this project of the Finance Committee aims to establish a taxation on cryptocurrencies without large variations. However, this would also come to represent that the owners of cryptocurrencies have to pay more to the State.
During the course of this year, government entities, organizations and companies of French origin began to become increasingly involved with the possibility of payment and investment offered by the cryptoactives. For instance, UNICEF France; the organization decided to accept donations in cryptocurrencies, as well as the French Ministry of Economy which recently expressed interest in applying regulations to the ICO’s market and the French Financial Markets Authority presented a list of new sites web “unauthorized” for the commerce of cryptoactives, among which highlighted the names of certain businesses related to cryptocurrencies.
By Samuel Paz