[Anchor]
Amid continuing backlash, the government has partially revised its plan to strengthen the comprehensive real estate holding tax for non-resident single-home owners. The measures have been eased from the original proposal, including the basic deduction, the tax burden limit, and the joint deduction for married couples.
Our first report comes from reporter Lee Seong-hoon.
[Reporter]
The government has decided to maintain the basic comprehensive real estate holding tax deduction for non-resident single-home owners at the current 1.2 billion won.
This comes 29 days after it announced on August 3 that it would lower the amount to 900 million won.
[Kang Yu-jung / Senior Presidential Spokesperson: To narrow the difference in tax burdens (between resident and non-resident single-home owners), the basic deduction amount for resident single-home owners will be raised from 1.2 billion won to 1.4 billion won, while the basic deduction amount for non-resident single-home owners will be maintained at the current 1.2 billion won.]
The plan to raise the cap on the comprehensive real estate holding tax burden from 150 percent of the previous year's property tax to 200 percent has also been withdrawn, keeping it at the current 150 percent.
For non-resident single-home owners who are married couples holding property jointly, the deduction—which had been reduced to 400 million won per person—has been raised back to 600 million won, making the total joint deduction for couples 1.2 billion won.
However, this is still less than the current joint deduction of 1.8 billion won for couples.
As a result, next year's property tax burden will also be reduced compared to the original reform proposal.
Assuming an apartment in Seocho-gu, Seoul, with a publicly assessed price of 3.5 billion won is held as a non-resident single home, the property tax for a sole owner would be 26.41 million won, a decrease of 6.77 million won from the original plan.
For jointly owned property by a married couple, the tax is calculated to decrease by about 5 million won, from 21.84 million won to 16.84 million won.
[Woo Byung-tak / Expert Advisor at Shinhan Premier Pathfinder: Given that the basic deduction amount previously provided for single-home sole ownership was 1.2 billion won, it has returned to that same level, meaning that a significant portion of the disadvantages for non-residents has been eased.]
As the gap in deduction amounts between residents and non-residents has narrowed significantly compared to the initial proposal, the government's emphasized principle of prioritizing actual residence-centered reform has been considerably undermined.
The government explained that it revised the final plan by reflecting opinions raised during the legislative notice and inter-ministerial consultation processes.
The final plan will be submitted to the National Assembly by tomorrow (September 3) and will then undergo deliberation during the regular session of the National Assembly.
(Video reporting: Jung Sang-bo, Yoon Hyung | Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)
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