The Blue House is reviewing another delay of the virtual-asset income tax scheduled to take effect in January 2027. Its official position is that nothing has been decided, but an official said consultations with the ruling party will head toward deferral, and the fairness debate is growing.
According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, a Blue House official said in a phone call with a reporter on the 25th that the virtual-asset tax will proceed in the direction of deferral in party-government consultations. The official added that respecting young people’s chances to build assets is also a factor. In a notice to reporters, however, the Blue House drew a line, saying it is “under review and nothing has been decided.”
광고 문의 · 300×250The Seoul Economic Daily reported that the Blue House is understood to have weighed insufficient preparation, opinion among young people, and the United States joining the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) from 2029. The reasoning is that if Korean authorities cannot fully verify overseas exchange data, the tax burden could fall only on users of domestic exchanges. The paper also said a party-government meeting is expected to reach a final conclusion once this month’s annual audit ends.
A tax delayed three times, and what remains
The tax was to take effect in 2022 under an income tax law amendment passed in December 2020. It applies a 22% rate to annual gains after a basic deduction of 2.5 million won, and has been postponed three times over gaps in the tax system and investor protection. The Kyunghyang Shinmun said party-government consultations and legislative steps remain, but a fourth delay has become more likely.
Politics is already moving toward deferral. According to the Seoul Economic Daily, the Democratic Party has submitted an income tax bill that would start taxation in 2029 and the People Power Party also argues for delay, so a legal change is expected during November’s tax-law review. Democratic leader Kim Min-seok had earlier said the issue should be “settled this year.” By contrast, News1 reported in August that Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol told the National Assembly on July 29 that the government would supplement the system if needed after implementing it next year.
The youth-protection argument and the fairness debate
The Kyunghyang Shinmun said a market slump since the second half of last year has cut trading volume at domestic exchanges to less than half within a year. In a financial authorities’ survey for the first half of this year, users in their 40s and 50s made up 47.1%, ahead of those in their 20s and 30s at 44.1%, and accounts holding from 100 million to under 1 billion won ranked by age as 50s, 40s, 60s and over, 30s, then 20s and under. Youth protection is the stated rationale, but critics note the main investors are middle-aged.
Concerns about tax fairness are also large. The Kyunghyang Shinmun noted that major economies including the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom tax virtual-asset income, and with the financial investment income tax already scrapped, another delay would deepen the fairness dispute between wage income and financial assets. Prof. Kim Hyun-dong of Pai Chai University said tax equity should not be compromised for the votes or asset-building of a particular group, and that delaying again could create a perception that holding out makes the tax disappear, fueling tax resistance.
