"Real Estate Tax Inconsistency Unfair... Two-Year Exit Route for Multiple Homeowners"

[Anchor]

President Lee Jae-myung pointed out the fairness issue between real estate capital gains tax and earned income tax during a cabinet meeting. Criticism has emerged that deferring heavy capital gains taxes on multiple homeowners once again lacks policy consistency, to which he also rebutted.

Reporter Kang Min-u has the details.

[Reporter]

President Lee Jae-myung pointed out that while the effective top tax rate on earned income reaches 49.5%, real estate capital gains tax falls far short of that, effectively protecting real estate speculation rather than housing welfare.

[President Lee Jae-myung: Right now, even when real estate capital gains reach around 10 billion won, the tax is only a few hundred million won, right? Making tens of billions of won through investments while paying almost no tax is extremely unfair compared to the earned income of workers.]

He also actively rebutted criticism regarding the heavy capital gains tax on multiple homeowners, which was revived last May but eased into a phased implementation just three months later.

[President Lee Jae-myung: There has been criticism like, are you giving multiple homeowners a chance? Are you effectively extending it again? Does it lack policy consistency? But that is not actually true.]

He explained that instead of completely abolishing the heavy taxation, a two-year exit route was opened by temporarily lowering it and then raising it in phases.

Immediately upon returning to the country the day before yesterday (the 3rd), President Lee presided over a review meeting on the real estate and stock markets lasting over seven hours, focusing heavily on swift real estate supply measures.

Reviewing the status of new housing site developments such as the Taereung Golf Course in Seoul, the Gwacheon Racecourse, and the Counter Intelligence Command site, President Lee ordered Prime Minister Han Sung-sook and ministers of relevant ministries to comprehensively reexamine supply measures.

The issue of single-stock leverage ETFs, cited as a cause of sharp fluctuations in the stock market, was also discussed. A Cheong Wa Dae official stated, "Rather than a structural problem with ETFs, it is a combination of domestic investor tendencies and liquidity," adding, "Opinions were raised that public relations and education might be more necessary than institutional improvements."

(Video reporting: Jung Sang-bo, Ha Ryung | Video editing: Lee Seung-jin | Design: Kang Yun-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.