End of the crypto blind spot for the tax authorities. The Senate voted on Tuesday, October 27, at first reading, the bill on CARF. This international agreement allows countries to automatically exchange crypto data of their taxpayers. We presented the text to you the same morning, before the vote. The text must still go before the National Assembly, on an unknown date.
Behind the acronym, a simple mechanism. In other words, what your platform knows about you, the tax authorities will also know. The first data will arrive in 2027, on your operations in 2026. Here is what this changes, in five questions.
Key Points
The Senate voted without modification on Bill No. 921, carried by Jean-Noël Barrot
Every year, the platforms will transmit to the tax authorities the identity of their customers and their volumes by crypto
France is one of the 46 countries which will exchange from 2027, before Switzerland in 2028 and the United States in 2029
No new tax: the 30% flat tax and form 3916-bis already exist, but your oversights will become visible
In 2025, the equivalent exchange for banks delivered 11.6 million foreign accounts to the tax authorities
What is the CARF that the Senate just approved?
The CARF (Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework) is a standard created by the OECD in 2022. Clearly, it applies to cryptos the recipe of CRS, the automatic exchange of banking data in place since 2017. Thus, each country collects data from its platforms and sends them to the tax authorities of the country where the customers live.
France signed the agreement on November 26, 2024 in Asunción, with 48 other states and territories. But signing is not enough: the Constitution requires a vote by Parliament to approve a treaty. This is why the Minister of Foreign Affairs tabled this bill on July 27, using an accelerated procedure.
The text has two articles. The first approves the CARF agreement. The second completes the 2014 banking agreement. It extends the exchange to electronic currencies and central bank digital currencies, such as the future digital euro. Finally, the rapporteur Emmanuel Capus had the whole adopted without modification in committee, then in session.
What will crypto platforms declare to the tax authorities?
It is the intermediaries who declare, not you. The text targets exchange platforms, brokers, traders and even operators of crypto ATMs.
Three types of operations appear: crypto-to-euro exchanges, crypto-to-crypto exchanges and transfers, including airdrops and staking income. The platform then adds everything up by crypto, inputs on one side and outputs on the other. On the other hand, a crypto payment at a merchant only appears in a separate line above $50,000.
On the identity side, the platform transmits your name, your address and your country of tax residence. It adds your tax number, the one that appears on your tax notice. Then, for each crypto, it indicates the number of transactions, quantities and total value. Stablecoins, crypto derivatives and certain NFTs also fall into the scope.
The Senate report does not hide the objective. The tax authorities want to identify undeclared capital gains, the use of foreign platforms and sendings to personal wallets. According to the report, many taxpayers already forget to declare their crypto accounts opened abroad.
When do the first exchanges arrive in France?
French law has already set the timetable. Indeed, the finance law for 2025 integrated the European directive DAC8 into French law. A decree of December 19, 2025 then specified the details. Since January 1, 2026, platforms installed in the EU have therefore recorded your transactions. They will file their first declaration in 2027.
CARF is extending this system to the rest of the world. The tax authorities exchange files once a year, within nine months following the end of the year. For France, the first files from abroad will therefore arrive in 2027, for your 2026 operations.
However, Emmanuel Capus adds a nuance in his report: “Signing the agreement alone is therefore not enough to automatically make the exchanges operational.” Each country must first confirm to each of its partners that it is ready to exchange. In addition, France will require them to respect the GDPR, the European data protection rules.
Which platforms and which countries are affected?
As of September 14, 2026, 77 countries and territories have made a commitment. Forty-six will exchange from 2027, France in the lead, with Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada. Twenty-seven will follow in 2028, including Switzerland, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. Finally, four will wait until 2029, including the United States. They did not sign the agreement, but promised to transmit their data from that date.
Concretely, Binance in France, Kraken in Ireland or Coinbase in Luxembourg will declare your accounts. These companies already apply the DAC8 directive. Conversely, four countries have made no commitment: El Salvador, Georgia, India and Vietnam.
To gauge the magnitude, just look at bank accounts. In 2025, 109 countries transmitted data to France on 11.6 million accounts, for a total of 456 billion euros. For crypto, the rapporteur considers the volume “difficult to assess at this stage”. According to Adan, one in ten French adults held cryptos at the start of 2025. The total weighed between 21 and 26 billion euros.
What do you need to do before 2027?
Nothing new on the tax side. CARF does not create any taxes, it makes oversights visible. Your sales of cryptos against euros always pay the flat tax of 30% beyond 305 euros of sales per year. Conversely, an exchange of one crypto for another remains untaxed as long as you do not switch back to euros. However, it will appear in the files, which will help the tax authorities reconstruct your positions.
The most often forgotten obligation concerns accounts. You must declare every year any crypto account opened, used or closed abroad on form 3916-bis, even empty. Forgetting costs 750 euros per account, and 1,500 euros if its value has exceeded 50,000 euros during the year. With CARF, it is the platform itself that will report a forgotten Kraken or Bitstamp account.
No one declares your personal wallet, the one to which only you hold the keys, because no intermediary manages it. But the platform will declare each transfer to this wallet, with the quantity and value. The tax authorities will therefore know what came out, without knowing what you did with it.
The past remains. The platforms will first transmit your 2026 transactions. For previous years, correcting your declarations yourself limits penalties. Since June, Bercy can also sell your cryptos directly on your platform to recover a tax debt.
