President Lee on Family Business Inheritance Tax Revision: 'Reducing Unjust Reductions Is the Path to Tax Normalization'

President Lee Jae-myung stated regarding the government's tax reform plan, which significantly tightened requirements for the "family business inheritance deduction," that "reducing unjust tax reductions is the path to tax normalization."

President Lee shared a press article introducing criticisms against the family business inheritance deduction reform on X (formerly Twitter) and refuted the claims. President Lee excerpted a part of the article stating that "taxi and bus transportation businesses, supermarkets, hospitals, and pharmacies are protesting their exclusion from the family business inheritance deduction targets."

He then asked back, "Is it fair to continue giving tens of billions of won in inheritance tax reductions to these types of businesses?"

This is interpreted as a re-emphasis of his long-held view that the family business inheritance deduction system should be strictly applied to industries genuinely worth protecting as family businesses, and that it should not be abused as a means to evade inheritance taxes.

The family business inheritance deduction is a system that subtracts a certain amount from the taxable inheritance property value when heirs inherit a business that has been operated for a certain period or longer.

In the recently announced 2026 tax reform plan, the government subdivided and reduced the target industries for this system and raised the business operation period requirement to 30 years or more.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.