Kim Min-seok officially proposes ‘virtual asset tax deferral’ to the government… “Needs an adaptation period”

Comprehensive consideration of conditions and equity... The overall framework must be established first by enacting the Framework Act on Digital Assets.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Nam-kwon and Jeong Yeon-sol = Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, officially requested the government to once again postpone taxation on virtual asset income, which is scheduled to take effect from next year.

Representative Kim said this at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on this day, saying, "We deliberated through discussions with the party and government centered on the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee and a meeting with virtual asset business operators."

He explained, “After comprehensively considering taxation principles, domestic industry conditions, and fairness between users, we agreed that it would be desirable to first enact the Basic Act on Digital Assets to establish an overall framework and allow an adaptation period for companies and investors.”

He added, "We also took into account the fact that taxation of virtual asset income was delayed in the past," and added, "This time, we will clearly set a grace period and thoroughly prepare for prior tasks such as utilizing overseas transaction information, computer verification, and tax payment guidance methods."

Since the establishment of the system in 2020, the implementation of virtual asset taxation has been postponed three times so far, and if all goes as planned, it will be implemented from January next year.

The key point is that a 22% tax rate is applied to the annual income generated from the transfer or rental of virtual assets minus the basic deduction of 2.5 million won, plus other income tax and local income tax.

There were conflicting opinions within the party: those who said that policy credibility should not be damaged and those who said that taxation should be imposed this time, and those who said that it should be postponed once more due to lack of infrastructure preparation, etc., but ultimately decided on a postponement policy.

Previously, Democratic Party members of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee agreed the day before to convey to the party leadership their opinion on the need to postpone virtual asset taxation.

The Finance Committee mainly mentioned two years as a grace period.

The deferment of taxation of virtual assets is expected to be finalized through high-level party and government consultations in the future.