South Korea to Delay Crypto Tax until 2023

Today, South Korea’s Finance Ministry confirmed that the National Assembly Planning and Finance Committee passed a bill to delay crypto taxation by one year. According to Maeil Kyungjae, the delay has been ‘virtually confirmed’ and postponed until 2023.

In fact, the National Assembly will vote the amendment on the bill on December 2, although it would be a mere formality, according to the local media outlets. There was no clear consensus among the lawmakers about how well prepared the authorities are to start taxing on crypto gains in South Korea.

There was a mention of the taxation infrastructure not being equipped enough to deploy the country’s crypto tax law. However, other outlets highlighted that the maneuver to delay the crypto tax’s law was done to gain the millennial votes from the ruling party, as that segment of the society is the active one in the cryptocurrency sphere.

The so-called crypto tax seeks to impose a 20% tax on crypto gains of more than 2.5 million won earned annually, classified as ‘miscellaneous incomes, and which applies to mining operations, and ICOs.  In September, a study conducted by the Korea Social Opinion Research Institute (KSOI) revealed that most South Koreans want the government to tax cryptocurrencies.

Survey on Crypto Tax

The survey was conducted between September 17 and September 18, where it found that just 33% of the participants opposed the crypto tax law. The media outlet noted that 1,004 adults participated in the KSOI study, and 55.3% answered ‘we should pay a tax on virtual currencies.’

In October, Rep. Yoo Gyeong-joon of the main opposition People Power Party questioned the National Tax Service (NTS) for lacking an administrative infrastructure to ask for taxes on crypto gains. In fact, Yoo accused Kim Dae-ji, Commissioner of NTS, of not having a clear answer about his view on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on whether they should be taxed or not under the crypto tax law.

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