Over 5,000 Comments on Real Estate Tax Revision Plan... Government Scrambles to Calm Public Backlash

[Anchor]

Meanwhile, thousands of comments have already been posted on the Ministry of Government Legislation website regarding the real estate tax revision plan. There is strong backlash, particularly from owners of a single home who do not reside in it, as well as couples who own homes under joint names. Critics are pouring in, arguing that the government should have conducted more thorough analysis before rolling out the policy.

Reporter Kim Beom-joo has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the website of the Ministry of Government Legislation.

More than 5,000 comments have already been posted on the legislative notice for the amendment to the Comprehensive Real Estate Holding Tax Act.

Various opinions are being left, pointing out that raising taxes for single-home owners who do not reside in their properties or for jointly-owned homes is problematic.

Understandably so, as there are 2.1 million households in the greater Seoul area where homeowners rent out properties they do not live in.

Once multi-home owners are filtered out and only single-home non-residents are counted, the figure is estimated to be around 1 million people.

In this tax revision plan, these non-resident single-home owners suddenly became a major tax target.

For those who own a home valued at just over 2 billion won based on market price, there is no comprehensive real estate holding tax if they reside in it. However, non-residents are now told to pay 1.85 million won.

Many people chose non-residence due to job relocations or childcare issues, leading to complaints such as whether they are expected to move every time, or if they are really being asked to pay nearly 100 million won in acquisition and registration taxes plus brokerage fees by buying and selling a 2 billion won apartment just to move.

There is also the issue of jointly-owned homes by couples.

Currently, basic deductions are granted when calculating the comprehensive real estate holding tax even for non-residents up to an official appraised value of 1.8 billion won, but this will be reduced to 800 million won in the future.

This is actually less than when a home is under a single name.

The National Assembly amended the law six years ago in 2020, promising to cut the comprehensive real estate holding tax if couples held homes under joint names.

As a result, the number of people who switched apartments, villas, and officetels in Seoul to joint ownership has now grown to over 1.5 million.

Although the government claims it conducted simulation evaluations and analyses on how many people will have to pay more taxes due to the non-resident single-home and joint-ownership rules, how much more they will pay, and what impact it will have on the market, it has yet to release the results.

The government is putting forward explanatory measures and fixes, stating that it will expand the acceptable reasons for non-residence and allow joint owners to pay taxes under a single name.

However, it appears necessary to accept the criticism that the government should have thoroughly reviewed statistics and analysis from the beginning before presenting the policy to the public.

(Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi, Design: Lee So-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.