S.Korean president’s plan to raise crypto tax threshold hits road bump

The South Kore­an Nation­al Assem­bly Research Ser­vice (NARS) assert­ed a 20% tax on cryp­tocur­ren­cy gains set for 2023 must main­tain a 2.5 mil­lion won (US$1,942.20) thresh­old, con­tra­dict­ing new pres­i­dent Yoon Suk-yeol’s ini­tia­tive to raise the lim­it to 50 mil­lion won, accord­ing to a report released on Thursday.

See relat­ed arti­cle: S.Korea finance min­is­ter nom­i­nee wants to delay cryp­to tax for two years

Fast facts

• The report also upheld that the cryp­to tax start date of Jan. 1, 2023 should no longer be delayed to 2025 as the nation’s deputy prime and finance min­is­ter nom­i­nee Choo Kyung-ho sug­gest­ed in ear­ly May. 

• Rais­ing the cryp­to tax thresh­old to 50 mil­lion won to match that of stock gains was a promise to vot­ers from Yoon dur­ing his elec­tion campaign. 

• Yoon’s pres­i­den­tial tran­si­tion com­mit­tee said ear­li­er this month that tax­a­tion will move for­ward after the leg­is­la­tion of investor pro­tec­tion mea­sures, allud­ing to fur­ther delay.

• South Korea’s 20% tax on over 2.5 mil­lion won worth of dig­i­tal asset income is set to start Jan. 1, 2023.

• The tax pol­i­cy was sched­uled to kick in Jan. 1, 2022, but crit­ics insist­ed tax­a­tion from 2022 is pre­ma­ture con­sid­er­ing the lack of investor pro­tec­tion mea­sures, and was unfair as tax on finan­cial asset gains set ground on the 50 mil­lion won mark.

See relat­ed arti­cle: Cryp­to tax delay is a chance for South Korea to fix loop­holes, experts say