According to Newspim and Newsis, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyung-il said at a briefing on Thursday that taxation of virtual-asset income will be delayed two years to 2029. The government plans to draft an amendment to the Income Tax Act and consult the National Assembly. If it passes, this will be the fourth postponement.

The tax was introduced through a 2020 amendment and was originally due in 2022. It was later pushed to 2023, 2025 and 2027. Newsis reported that Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok asked on Wednesday for a Digital Asset Basic Act to be enacted first and for an adjustment period, and that the government accepted.

Loss carry-forward added, fairness still unresolved

The government will also allow losses from virtual-asset trading to be carried forward for three years and deducted from gains. A loss in 2029, for example, could be offset against profits through 2032. It cited the United States and Britain, which already allow this, and Japan, which is moving in that direction.

Fairness is the heart of the dispute. Critics note that after the financial investment income tax was scrapped in 2024, stocks, bonds and funds escaped taxation while virtual assets remained taxed as miscellaneous income. Newsis reported that under the scrapped plan the basic deduction for listed domestic stocks was 50 million won versus 2.5 million won for crypto, and investors have demanded a higher figure. Prof. Kim Woo-chul of the University of Seoul said it is hard to justify taxing only crypto while leaving stock and bond gains untaxed, and predicted that carry-forward alone changes little and another delay is likely.

International data exchange and open tasks

Another rationale is international information sharing. Korea joins the OECD crypto-asset reporting framework (CARF) next year, but Newsis reported that the Cayman Islands, Singapore, Switzerland and others begin exchanging data in 2028 and the United States in 2029. There were concerns that taxing earlier could push money to overseas exchanges and concentrate the burden on users of domestic exchanges.

Tax rules for staking, airdrops and hard forks, and how to verify the acquisition cost of assets moved from abroad, are still unsettled. The government plans a public-private working group, a reform proposal by the first half of next year, and detailed tax standards in the first half of 2028. Industry welcomed the extra preparation time, and Prof. Kang Hyung-goo of Hanyang University urged a combined analysis of tax revenue, asset outflows and compliance costs with transparent input from stakeholders. The specific positions of opposition parties and civic groups could not be confirmed.