The France €305 Crypto Exemption

There is one threshold in the French occasional-investor regime that decides whether you compute anything at all, and this article is about that threshold alone: the €305 disposal exemption. Its shape is unusual. It is all-or-nothing, and it is measured on disposals rather than gains, so crossing €305 by a single euro makes the whole year taxable from the first euro. Get this gate right and the rest follows: the 150 VH bis calculation only runs above it, the 2086 only needs completing above it, and the PFU rate only bites above it. The France crypto tax guide is the pillar.

The short answer

• Total annual disposals at or below €305 means gains are fully exempt (article 150 VH bis I CGI).
• It is measured on disposals (proceeds), not on gains.
• It is all-or-nothing: exceed €305 by any amount and every disposal of the year is taxable, from €1.
• It is annual: it resets each calendar tax year, with no carryover.
• Crypto-to-crypto does not count toward the €305, since it is not a taxable disposal for occasional investors.

What the exemption is

Article 150 VH bis I CGI exempts an occasional investor's digital-asset gains where the total of all disposals for the year is €305 or less. At or below the threshold, the gains are not taxed and no 150 VH bis computation is practically needed. It is a de minimis designed so that very small crypto activity does not create a filing-and-tax burden.

Trap 1: disposals, not gains

The single most common misreading: treating €305 as a gains allowance. It is not. The threshold measures the total disposal proceeds (prix de cession) for the year, not the profit. Consequences:

• €280 of disposals with a 90% gain → exempt (below €305 on disposals).
• €400 of disposals with a €5 gain → fully taxable (above €305 on disposals), each disposal computed with the 150 VH bis method.

The profit is irrelevant to whether the threshold is crossed. Only cumulative disposal proceeds matter.

Trap 2: all-or-nothing

There is no partial relief and no €305 deduction once you exceed the threshold. The exemption is binary:

Crossing €305 does not give you "the first €305 free." It removes the exemption entirely. A taxpayer at €304 of disposals who makes one more €10 disposal moves the entire year from fully exempt to fully taxable. Near the threshold, the marginal disposal is extraordinarily expensive — this is the key planning point.

Trap 3: it is annual and resets

The €305 is measured per calendar tax year on that year's total disposals and resets each year with no carryover. Spreading tiny disposals across years to stay ≤ €305 each year is the structural implication (subject to not being recharacterised as something else). Each year stands alone against its own €305.

Crypto-to-crypto does not count

Because crypto-to-crypto exchanges are not taxable events for occasional investors, they are not the disposals the €305 measures. The threshold counts taxable disposals — crypto to fiat, goods, or services. Crypto-to-crypto still must be tracked for portfolio valuation under 150 VH bis, but it does not consume the €305. A very active on-chain trader who never cashes to fiat can have huge crypto-to-crypto volume and still be under €305 of taxable disposals.

2026 interaction

If you exceed €305 and the year is taxable, the net gain (computed via 150 VH bis) is taxed at the 2026 PFU of 31.4% (12.8% income tax + 18.6% prélèvements sociaux — up from 30% due to the CSG increase), or the progressive scale by the global option (see PFU vs barème). The €305 test, the 150 VH bis calculation, and the rate are three sequential steps: threshold → calculation → rate.

Worked example: the marginal disposal problem

Consider a taxpayer with the following FY 2026 activity:

• January: Sold 0.02 ETH for €150 (cost basis €80 → gain €70)
• March: Sold 150 USDC for €150 (stablecoin, near-zero gain)
• Total disposals so far: €300 — below €305, fully exempt.

In November, they sell a small NFT for €20:

• New total disposals: €320 — crosses €305 by €15.
• The entire year becomes taxable: all three disposals now go through the 150 VH bis method.
• The €70 ETH gain is now taxable at 31.4% PFU → €22 in tax.

The marginal €20 NFT sale caused €22 in tax — a negative-return event on a €20 disposal with a small gain. This is the mechanical reality that makes year-end disposal management critical near the threshold. Deferring the NFT sale to January of the following year would have preserved the exemption for FY 2026 entirely.

Practical workflow

1. Sum total taxable disposals for the year (proceeds, not gains; crypto-to-crypto excluded).
2. ≤ €305 → exempt; done.
3. > €305 → the whole year is taxable; compute every disposal via 150 VH bis on Form 2086.
4. Apply the 2026 PFU 31.4% (or barème).
5. Plan near the threshold: a marginal small disposal that crosses €305 can tax the entire year — defer if possible.
6. Reconcile against DAC8-reported data (see DAC8 impact on individuals).

Checking how a tool applies the €305 threshold

Tools differ on this one, and a wrong setting can flip a year from exempt to taxable or the reverse. Confirm the tool:

• measures the threshold on total annual disposals (proceeds), not on gains;
• treats it as all-or-nothing, so exceeding €305 makes every disposal taxable rather than giving "the first €305 free";
• sums disposals across every exchange and wallet for the year, since the test is annual and taxpayer-level (or foyer-level — see couples and a minor);
• excludes crypto-to-crypto from the count while still tracking it for portfolio valuation.

Waltio is French-specialised and Koinly supports the French regime; both apply the test, but a tool that models €305 as a gains allowance or a per-transaction deduction will be wrong for France.

How Wag3s fits in

Wag3s Folio measures the €305 threshold on total taxable disposals, all-or-nothing and with crypto-to-crypto excluded, then runs the 150 VH bis method and the 2026 PFU at 31.4% only where the year is taxable. It does the arithmetic and keeps the trail; near-threshold planning and edge cases are where it is meant to support a qualified French expert-comptable rather than replace one.

Further reading

• France Crypto Tax Guide 2026
• Cerfa 2086 Explained
• Crypto Capital Gains Calculation France (150 VH bis)
• PFU vs Barème: Choosing in France
• How to Do Crypto Taxes
• DAC8 Impact on Individuals

Sources

• Légifrance — Article 150 VH bis CGI: paragraph I exempts disposals where the annual total of disposal prices is €305 or less.
• BOFiP — RPPM, cession d'actifs numériques à titre occasionnel : champ d'application (BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30-10): scope of the occasional regime and the €305 total-disposal exemption.
• impots.gouv.fr — Comment déclarer les plus ou moins-values sur cessions d'actifs numériques: the €305 threshold measured at foyer level on total disposal prices.
• Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226 (DAC8) — EUR-Lex.