Byeongdeok Min: “Virtual assets cannot be taxed even though there is no basic law.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-hyun = In order to increase competitiveness in the domestic virtual asset market, an opinion has emerged that taxation should be postponed and related legislation should be quickly institutionalized.

Lim Jong-in, CEO of the Digital Asset Policy Forum, made this claim at the 'Discussion on urgent inspection of domestic digital asset market competitiveness and system improvement plan in the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) era' held at the National Assembly Library in Yeouido, Seoul on the 2nd.

CEO Lim said, “If we ignore the phenomenon of digital assets leaving the domestic market, not only will liquidity be reduced, but related industries, technologies, and corporate growth opportunities may also be leaked overseas.”

It was an event hosted by the offices of Democratic Party lawmakers Lee Kwang-jae, Min Byeong-deok, Park Min-gyu, and Lee Kang-il, and co-hosted and hosted by the Digital Asset Policy Forum.

In his congratulatory speech, Rep. Min argued for the postponement of taxation, saying, "If tax fairness and market competitiveness are both considered, taxation of digital assets should be deferred. It is shameless to tax them without enacting a basic law."

Rep. Lee continued, "The authorities said they would give (the government plan) this month. If it doesn't work out this year, we have to pass it at least in January or February next year," and added, "We will make sure that the roadmap comes out before the end of this year."

Kim Gyu-jin, CEO of Tigere Research, said in a keynote speech, “About 700 trillion won worth of virtual assets have been leaked overseas from Korea over the past five years from 2021.” This is the amount of outflow without subtracting the virtual assets that flowed back into the country.

He said, “Globally, virtual asset investment is leaving the spot market and changing into derivatives trading, but this is impossible in Korea,” and added, “The estimated transaction fees paid to overseas businesses last year was about 5 trillion won.”

In the panel discussion, participants discussed topics such as major issues and policy tasks in virtual asset taxation, and ways to improve virtual asset laws in the AI ​​agent economy era.

Moon Kyung-ho, head of the Income Tax Department at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, said, “The government is considering a reasonable plan that the public can understand and can be implemented stably in the field,” and added, “We will listen to various opinions and draw a conclusion through close communication and sufficient consultation.”

Kim Woo-cheol, a tax professor at the University of Seoul, said that capital gains taxation has not been established in Korea, and that the direction of virtual asset taxation should be discussed on the premise of first introducing the main body, the 'financial investment income tax' (gold investment tax).

Moon Seong-hoon, a professor at Hallym University Business School, said, “The goal of virtual asset taxation is not tax revenue, but trust,” and added, “I hope the system is designed to increase the direction of prediction for both investors and the market by setting the conditions and order of implementation.”

Regarding the need for legislation in the era of AI agent payments, Seo Na-yoon, head of the Virtual Asset Division of the Financial Services Commission, said, "After the Framework Act on Digital Assets (legislation), many laws in the financial industry require some revision, so we are discussing internally."

He added, “We are working hard on the (Basic Digital Assets) Act that you are most curious about, and we will support it to be discussed openly in the National Assembly as soon as possible.”