Short answer: If you are tax-domiciled in France and, during 2025, opened, held, used or closed an account abroad with a provider that habitually receives digital assets in deposit, you generally must report that account with form 3916-3916 bis when filing your 2026 French income or results return. The rule concerns a foreign account relationship, not simply owning cryptocurrency. Official guidance does not conclusively classify every self-custody or decentralized-wallet arrangement, so those cases require a fact-specific check with the French tax authority or a qualified French tax adviser.
The five-part test for a reportable foreign crypto account
Work through every part of this test for each exchange, hosted wallet or other digital-asset service you used. A “yes” answer to all five generally places the account within the French foreign-account declaration rules.
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1. Are you tax-domiciled in France?
The rule is aimed at individuals domiciled in France under Article 4 B of the French General Tax Code. Tax residence is not determined solely by citizenship, nationality or having a French bank account. Your household, principal home, main professional activity and centre of economic interests can all matter under the residence rules. If your status changed during the year, establish which country treated you as resident for the relevant period before completing the form.
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2. Is the account or service abroad?
The declaration concerns an account opened, held, used or closed outside France. “Abroad” refers to the location or establishment of the account relationship and provider, not the nationality of the app, the language of its interface or the currency displayed in your balance. Record the provider’s legal name and address so you can determine where the account is established and complete the form accurately.
3. Does a provider habitually receive digital assets in deposit?
The 2026 income-tax brochure describes covered digital-asset accounts as accounts held with a person or entity that habitually receives such assets in deposit. This custody or deposit relationship is central. An overseas hosted exchange or custodial wallet normally presents a provider that credits and holds assets for customers; a blockchain address that you control directly does not necessarily present the same account relationship.
Do not use the word “wallet” alone as the legal test. Identify who controls the keys, who records your balance, who can transfer assets on your instruction and whether a service provider is receiving the assets for safekeeping. If those facts do not clearly establish an account with a depositing provider, the official material does not provide a categorical answer.
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4. Did an in-scope event occur during the year?
For the 2026 filing season, examine activity during 2025. The account is relevant if it was opened, held, used or closed at any point in that year. A zero balance does not by itself remove an account from consideration if the account remained open or was used. Likewise, closing an account during 2025 does not erase the reporting obligation for that year.
5. Did you hold or control the account in a covered capacity?
Check whether you were the account holder, joint holder, economic beneficiary or proxy holder. The general guidance also addresses beneficial owners. A person who can benefit from or control an account may therefore need to report it even when another person’s name appears on the service record. Keep evidence of the capacity in which you acted; it helps resolve joint-account and delegated-access questions.
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What “crypto wallet” arrangements are covered?
Hosted accounts with an overseas provider
A hosted account is maintained by a company or other service provider. The provider generally keeps an internal ledger, receives digital assets for customers and processes withdrawals. When that provider is abroad and habitually receives digital assets in deposit, the arrangement matches the description used in the French tax authority’s foreign-account guidance. You should treat the account as potentially reportable and complete the five-part test rather than relying on the product’s marketing label.
Self-custody software or hardware wallets
In a self-custody arrangement, you control the private keys and no custodian maintains an account balance for you. The official sources reviewed do not squarely classify every self-custody wallet, hardware device, smart-contract address or decentralized protocol. It is therefore unsafe to state either that every wallet address must be declared or that self-custody is automatically exempt.
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Document the facts that make your arrangement different from a hosted account: who holds the keys, whether any entity receives assets in deposit, whether you created the address yourself, and whether an intermediary can freeze, lend or transfer assets. If an intermediary combines a self-custody interface with custody or account services, analyze each relationship separately and ask the tax authority or a French adviser for a written view when the distinction affects filing.
Multiple addresses and sub-accounts
Several blockchain addresses may belong to one hosted account, while one provider may give you separate trading, staking or savings sub-accounts. The form asks for account information and provider details, so preserve the provider’s account identifiers and read the current form instructions to determine how it wants related accounts described. Do not create a blanket rule based only on the number of public addresses.
How to file form 3916-3916 bis for the 2026 season
The French tax authority treats the foreign-account declaration as an attachment to your annual income or results return. For accounts held during 2025, the 2026 brochure directs taxpayers to the digital-asset section, including box 8UU and form 3916-3916 bis. Form editions and online screens can change, so use the edition and instructions for the filing year you are actually submitting.
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- List every possible account. Review exchange statements, wallet-service emails, transfer histories and closure confirmations for 1 January through 31 December 2025. Include accounts opened, used, held or closed during that period.
- Confirm your residence position. Apply the Article 4 B residence test and note any move, split-year residence or treaty issue. Citizenship alone is not a substitute for this check.
- Identify the provider. Write down the provider’s legal name, address, website where relevant, country and the account number or designation shown in its records. Preserve a copy of the provider’s terms identifying whether it provides custody or deposit services.
- Describe the account. Record the account type, its use and the opening and closing dates requested by the form. If it remained open, do not invent a closing date; follow the form’s instructions for an open account.
- Record your capacity. Mark whether you were the holder, joint holder, economic beneficiary, beneficial owner or proxy holder. Gather authorizations or agreements if you operated the account for somebody else.
- Enter the declaration with your annual return. Online filers complete the 3916-3916 bis information during the online income-tax procedure and select the relevant box, including 8UU where applicable. Paper filers should use the current form, sign it and submit it through the route stated in that year’s instructions.
- Save proof of submission. Keep the acknowledgment, a PDF or printout of the submitted form, provider records and your calculation notes with the tax records for the applicable retention period.
Information to gather before opening the form
Collect the following fields for each potentially reportable account. Doing this first reduces omissions and makes an uncertain account easier to discuss with an adviser.
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- Provider website, if requested by the current form.
- Account designation, customer number or other identifier.
- Whether the service held assets in deposit, operated a ledger or otherwise acted as custodian.
- Opening date, closing date if applicable, and evidence of any use during 2025.
- Your status as holder, joint holder, beneficial owner, economic beneficiary or proxy holder.
- Records showing the account’s foreign establishment or location.
- Closure confirmation, even if the account had no remaining balance.
Keep the provider’s legal terms and correspondence, not just screenshots of a mobile app. Names can change after a merger or reorganisation; use the legal entity that actually maintained the account during the year and explain a name change in your records.
Foreign-account reporting is separate from tax on crypto disposals
Submitting form 3916-3916 bis answers whether a qualifying foreign account existed. It does not calculate the tax due when you sold or exchanged digital assets. Those are separate compliance questions.
For individuals, the tax authority describes a separate disposal process that can include form 2086 for the resulting gain or loss. Its online guidance states a €305 annual gross-disposal-price threshold for exemption in specified individual cases. That threshold concerns disposal taxation only. It is not a threshold below which you can omit an otherwise reportable foreign account.
Consequently, a person can have no taxable disposal gain and still need to declare a qualifying foreign account. Conversely, declaring an account does not by itself establish that a disposal gain is taxable; calculate disposals under the rules and forms applicable to your circumstances.
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Penalties stated for the 2025 reporting year
The Direction générale des Finances publiques’ 2026 income-tax brochure gives the following figures for omissions or inaccuracies relating to covered foreign digital-asset accounts:
| Situation described in the 2026 brochure | Stated amount |
|---|---|
| Undeclared account | €750 per account |
| Omission or inaccuracy | €125 per omission or inaccuracy |
| Maximum per declaration | €10,000 |
| When the value of relevant foreign-held digital-asset accounts exceeded €50,000 at any time during the year | €1,500 per undeclared account and €250 per omission or inaccuracy |
These are the brochure’s figures for the covered reporting year, not a timeless schedule. Verify the amounts and any legislative changes for a later filing year. The brochure’s French wording states: “Toute omission ou inexactitude dans votre déclaration vous expose à une amende de 750€ par compte non déclaré ou de 125€ par omission ou inexactitude, dans la limite de 10000€ par déclaration.”
How common fact patterns should be analyzed
| Fact pattern | What to check | Practical treatment |
|---|---|---|
| French resident, overseas hosted trading account used in 2025 | Provider’s foreign establishment and custody/deposit role | Generally in scope if the provider habitually receives digital assets in deposit; prepare 3916-3916 bis. |
| Account opened abroad but closed before the 2025 year ended | Whether it was opened, held, used or closed during 2025 | Closure during the year does not remove that year’s reporting question. |
| French resident with only a personally controlled address | Whether any entity receives assets in deposit or maintains an account for you | Official guidance does not conclusively classify every self-custody case; obtain fact-specific advice. |
| Joint account or account operated for another person | Holder, joint-holder, economic-beneficiary and proxy status | Do not assume the named customer is the only person with a reporting obligation. |
| Foreign account with no 2025 trades | Whether it remained open or was otherwise held during the year | Trading activity is not required if the account was held during the relevant period. |
| Disposals below €305 gross for the year | Whether a separate disposal exemption applies | The €305 rule does not decide whether a foreign account must be declared. |
CARF and DAC8: related reporting, different question
The tax authority’s information-transfer page, modified on 20 July 2026, lists CGI Articles 1649 AC bis through sexies and Decree No. 2025-1276 of 19 December 2025 concerning crypto-asset service-provider reporting and due diligence under CARF/DAC8. Those provisions concern information sent by service providers to tax authorities.
That information-transfer framework is separate from your personal 3916-bis analysis. The cited page does not establish that it changes the residence, foreign-account, custody or annual-activity test described above. Do not treat a provider’s reporting to authorities as a substitute for your own declaration, and do not assume that provider reporting alone proves that every self-custody address is covered.
What to do when the answer is uncertain
Ask a focused question, not “Is crypto taxable?”
Describe the exact relationship: your French residence status, the provider’s legal entity and country, who controlled the keys, whether the provider received assets in deposit, the dates the account was open, and your role. Include copies of terms and account records. This lets the tax authority or adviser address the foreign-account test rather than a different question about disposal gains.
Separate uncertain accounts from clear ones
Do not let one ambiguous decentralized arrangement obscure a clearly reportable hosted account. Prepare the form for accounts that satisfy the test and keep a written analysis of the uncertain arrangement. If you later determine that a filed return was incomplete or inaccurate, obtain advice promptly about the correction process for that filing year.
Use the filing-year instructions
The relevant box numbers, electronic screens, paper procedures and penalty rules can change. For the 2026 season, use the brochure and form instructions covering 2025 activity. For a later year, replace every form edition, box reference and penalty figure with that year’s official material.
Quick Recap
A final self-check before submitting
- I established whether I was tax-domiciled in France under the applicable rules.
- I listed every foreign digital-asset account opened, held, used or closed during 2025.
- I identified whether each provider habitually received digital assets in deposit.
- I checked holder, joint-holder, economic-beneficiary, beneficial-owner and proxy roles.
- I recorded the provider’s legal name, address, website where requested, account designation and dates.
- I completed the current 3916-3916 bis information with my annual income or results return and checked box 8UU where the instructions require it.
- I handled disposal gains or losses separately, including form 2086 when applicable.
- I retained submission evidence and supporting records.
- I obtained individual advice for any self-custody, decentralized or mixed custody arrangement that the official guidance does not clearly classify.
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