"Left House to Babysit Grandkids"… Over 2,500 Complaints in Five Days

[Anchor]

In less than a week since the real estate tax reform proposal was announced, over 2,500 complaints have been filed with the government. In particular, there has been a strong backlash regarding the requirements for recognizing actual residency. Some people say their tax burden will increase just because they moved to help raise their grandchildren.

Reporter Jeon Hyeong-u has the story.

[Reporter]

Five days after the real estate tax reform proposal was announced for legislative notice on the 4th, more than 2,500 legislative opinions were submitted.

While opinions arguing that the increase in the comprehensive real estate tax burden is excessive dominated, requests to expand the criteria for recognizing actual residency also continued.

The current reform proposal includes an exception clause that recognizes a three-year residency period even for non-residents if special circumstances are acknowledged.

These include schooling, job transfers, school transfers, and supporting parents, with calls mounting to include childcare as well.

Grandparents who moved into or near their children's homes to care for their grandchildren could face a sharp increase in property taxes as they become single-home owners classified as non-residents, and they are asking for such circumstances to be reflected.

[Single-Home Owner Classified as Non-Resident: We moved here because we thought, since we're going to watch the grandkids anyway, we should go close by and look after them. We didn't move around to make a fortune. We're retirees living on pensions.]

However, some point out that a cautious approach is necessary, as expanding the grounds for recognizing actual residency could also increase the possibility of gap investments exploiting the loophole.

While gathering opinions on the tax reform proposal, the Democratic Party decided to hold the first meeting of its internal housing market stabilization task force within this week.

[Han Jeong-ae, Policy Committee Chair of the Democratic Party of Korea: I would like to say that we will go through a process of listening to and gathering various voices.]

After going through the legislative notice period until the 20th, the government plans to submit the final proposal, prepared through party-government consultations, to the National Assembly before the 3rd of next month.

In addition, additional housing supply measures and financial support plans for the Seoul metropolitan area are scheduled to be announced as early as this week.

(Camera: Choi Jun-sik | Video Editing: Park Chun-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.