Koo Yun-cheol: Property Taxes Aim to Normalize Transactions, Not Suppress Housing Prices

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun-cheol stated today (the 29th), "The Lee Jae-myung administration does not operate property taxes to suppress housing prices," adding, "The purpose is to normalize transactions and stabilize the real estate market."

Koo made the remarks during a work report to the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Strategy Committee, responding to a lawmaker's question regarding the upcoming real estate tax revision plan set to be announced early next month. The lawmaker had pointed out, "Wasn't it President Lee Jae-myung's presidential campaign pledge that housing prices would not be controlled through taxes?"

Koo explained, "The policy is to provide benefits for a single home in which one resides, while not providing tax incentives for those who own multiple homes but reside in only one while leaving the others unoccupied."

Regarding the necessity of a "threefold increase in holding taxes" mentioned by President Lee, Koo said, "Please understand that it does not literally mean exactly three times, but rather as an example that the current level of holding taxes is low and needs to be raised somewhat."

Koo also expressed his stance that the taxation of capital gains on digital assets (cryptocurrency) for individual investors, scheduled to begin in January of next year, will be implemented as planned.

In response to concerns that "cryptocurrency taxation could cause capital to flow overseas," he replied, "Since taxation is currently scheduled to be deferred only until the end of this year, we will implement it next year and make supplementary adjustments where necessary."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.