Blue, weighs ‘virtual asset tax deferral’… It appears that the public opinion of the youth was taken into consideration.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ko Dong-wook and Seol Seung-eun = There is a growing possibility that the 'virtual asset taxation' scheduled to be implemented in January next year will be postponed again.

According to the ruling party on the 25th, the Blue House is considering various measures, with an emphasis on deferring virtual asset taxation again.

Since virtual asset taxation was introduced with the revision of the Income Tax Act in 2020, its implementation has been postponed three times.

The core of the system is to apply a 22% tax rate, which is the sum of other income tax and local income tax, to the amount obtained by subtracting basic income of 2.5 million won from the annual income generated by transferring or renting virtual assets.

The government has been carrying out related administrative procedures ahead of implementation in January of next year, but there has been continued debate in the political world over whether it will be implemented as planned.

Even within the ruling party, there has been a conflict between the opinion that implementation should not be delayed further for policy consistency and the argument that it is premature because the laws and systems are still insufficient.

Recently, 14 lawmakers from the ruling party, including Rep. Park Min-gyu of the Democratic Party of Korea, jointly proposed a bill to delay the tax enforcement date to 2029, saying, “The timing should be adjusted considering that the United States, the world’s largest virtual asset market, will participate in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Automatic Information Exchange System (CARF) for encrypted assets in 2029.”

The People Power Party is in favor of deferment, saying that taxation infrastructure is still insufficient.

As the controversy continued, Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, appeared on the Democratic Party's YouTube broadcast 'Minty 07' and said, "We need to sort things out this year," and announced that he would reach a conclusion on this issue after intensive consultations between the party and government.

Meanwhile, as the Blue House reviews measures to defer taxation, it is expected that the theory of deferral will be given weight in future party-government discussions.

As it is time to look for an opportunity for a rebound as the decline in the government's approval rating subsides, some interpret it as taking into account the public opinion of young people who react sensitively to asset-related policies.

Accordingly, there is a possibility that a conclusion will be drawn as soon as possible through party-government discussions and high-level party-government council meetings.