South Korea eyes triple real estate tax revenue in 2021

On Monday the Ministry of Finance said that a revision to South Korea's real estate holding tax law will help the government collect 5.7 trillion or 4.8 billion won in such taxes in 2021, a three-fold increase over 2020. As part of efforts to cool the country's overheated real estate market, the government changed the law last year, raising the holding tax rate for homeowners. This year, the changes came into effect. Since President Moon Jae-in took office in 2017, his administration has enacted a slew of loan restrictions and tax reforms that have done little to cool the housing market. According to Kookmin Bank data, the average price of an apartment in Seoul has roughly doubled since 2016, reaching 1.18 billion won in August. Park, who is one of the 947,000 people or 2% of South Korea's 52 million people affected by the tax hike this year, claims he will owe 6.3 times more taxes on his real estate holdings in 2021 than he did in 2020. Park, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, said the tax increase will not have the desired effect of forcing him to sell one of his many properties. The annual holding tax rate for multi-property owners has been increased to as much as 6%, up from 3.2% previously. The finance ministry said that only a small proportion of property owners will face higher taxes as a result of the housing market stabilisation policy. Others, on the other hand, claim they are unconcerned because the tax only affects those who own some of the country's most valuable homes. Image Source