South Korea's realty tax law revision to help govt collect $4.8 bn

An update to South Korea's real estate holding tax law will assist the government in collecting $4.8 billion in such taxes in 2021, the finance ministry said on Monday, a three-fold jump as against last year.

The government updated the law in 2020, raising the holding tax rate for homeowners, as part of efforts to calm the nation's red-hot real estate market.

The revisions took effect in 2021. Since President Moon Jae-in took office in 2017, his government has launched dozens of loan curbs and tax rules that have done little to calm the property market.

The average cost of a flat in the capital city Seoul has roughly doubled since 2016 to 1.18 billion acquired as of August, Kookmin Bank data revealed. Park, who is among the 947,000 people or 2% of South Korea's 52 million population subject to the tax hike this year, said he owes 6.3 times as much taxes on his real estate holdings in 2021 as against 2020 due to the tax rise.

Park told the media that the tax increase would not have the wanted effect of forcing him to sell one of his many properties. Under the changes, the holding tax rate that various property owners have to pay per year was increased to as much as 6% from 3.2% earlier.

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