France: the tax authorities can sell your cryptocurrencies by force
The previously complex seizure of cryptocurrencies held on a crypto platform has recently been simplified within the framework of the law relating to the fight against social and tax fraud. As a result, the tax…
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https://cryptoast.fr/france-fisc-peut-vendre-vos-cryptoentreprises-de-force/
The increasing consideration of cryptocurrencies in traditional economic and financial spheres is also accompanied by less exciting developments, in particular when it comes to their possible seizure while they are held on a platform.
A procedure visibly modified as part of the bill relating to the fight against social and tax fraud tabled by the government in October 2025 and finally adopted and entered into force at the end of last June, as highlighted by tax lawyer Stéphanie Némarq-Attias, founder of the Qomit firm.
Indeed, until now “forced tax collection often stopped at the doors of crypto platforms”, given the often complex procedures that this procedure entailed. A reality that is now very different, since this law now allows public accountants much easier access to crypto portfolios held by crypto-asset service providers (PSCA).
Administrative seizure by third party holder (SATD) allows the public accountant to require a third party, upon simple request, to pay him the sums he holds on behalf of a debtor taxpayer. This is the tool that usually targets your bank or your employer. Article 90 of the law extends this mechanism to crypto-assets, when they are held by a crypto-asset service provider on behalf of a debtor.
According to the explanations of Stéphanie Némarq-Attias, this new legal framework makes it possible to remove a significant legal obstacle. And for good reason, the administrative seizure procedure from a third party holder “came up against the very nature of crypto-assets: they cannot be assimilated either to legal tender money or to debts for sums of money”.
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As a result, crypto wallets held on platforms escaped the immediate attribution effect specific to the SATD, because cryptocurrencies do not constitute claims for sums of money. Their sale was therefore necessary to obtain the funds to recover the tax debt.
A pitfall that the new law makes it possible to circumvent by putting in place a procedure which “organizes the seizure of the portfolio, supervises the sale and provides for an effect of allocation of the proceeds of sale on the day of notification”.
Under the terms of this law, the seizure imposed by the tax authorities on a crypto wallet can concern all of its contents, up to the amount claimed, without however targeting a particular cryptocurrency. In fact, only the repayment of the amount of the debt is taken into account.
Machine-translated from French
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