- An amendment to raise the exit tax threshold from €800,000 to €1.3 million, and restore the old 15-year deferral period, passed a first-reading Assemblée Nationale vote 70 to 55 on 3 November 2025
- It didn't survive into the final, promulgated 2026 Finance Law — the €800,000 threshold and the current 2-year/5-year deferral system remain unchanged
- The full picture of what the exit tax actually does — and the useful fact that Assurance Vie is explicitly excluded from it — is covered in our dedicated exit tax guide
If you've come across a claim online that France's exit tax threshold rose to €1.3 million for 2026, that's out of date. It nearly happened, then didn't.
What the amendment would have done
Amendment n°I-807, tabled by Rassemblement National deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy, aimed to restore France's exit tax (Article 167 bis CGI) to its pre-2019 form. Two changes were proposed together:
- Raising the triggering threshold from €800,000 back up to €1.3 million
- Extending the deferral-then-write-off period from today's 2 or 5 years back to a flat 15 years
Both changes would have made the tax easier to avoid for anyone leaving France — a higher threshold catches fewer people, and a longer holding period before the deferred tax is automatically written off gives more time to simply wait it out.
It passed a first vote — then didn't survive
- 3 November 2025: the amendment passed a first-reading vote in the National Assembly, 70 votes to 55
- 19 December 2025: the joint committee (commission mixte paritaire) tasked with reconciling the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget failed to reach agreement
- 23 January 2026: the Lecornu government invoked Article 49.3 to force the budget through without a further vote
- 27 January 2026: censure motions against the government were rejected
- The Constitutional Council subsequently validated the budget, and the 2026 Finance Law was promulgated in February 2026 — without the Tanguy amendment
The threshold amendment was one of many provisions that didn't make it through this process. It isn't unusual for individual amendments to be dropped between a first-reading vote and a final promulgated law — this is simply confirmation of which version applies for anyone making decisions based on 2026 rules.
What actually applies now
For anyone leaving France in 2026, nothing has changed from the exit tax's established rules:
- €800,000 securities threshold (or 50%+ of a company's profit rights) — unchanged since the 2013 Finance Law
- 2-year deferral period for holdings under €2,570,000, or 5 years for holdings at or above that
- 31.4% combined rate on the latent gain (12.8% income tax + 18.6% social charges)
For the full mechanics — including who it actually applies to, why Assurance Vie is explicitly excluded, and what changes if you move to the UK specifically — see our full guide to France's exit tax.
Sources: Amendement n°I-807, Assemblée Nationale (proposed amendment text) · Vote n°3334, Assemblée Nationale (3 November 2025 vote record) · Article 167 bis, Code général des impôts (current exit tax rules as promulgated)