Over 5,000 Comments Flood 'Revision Plan'… Government Scrambles to Calm Backlash

[Anchor]

Meanwhile, thousands of public comments have already been posted on the Ministry of Government Legislation website regarding the real estate tax revision plan. In particular, there is fierce backlash from owners of a single home who do not reside in it, as well as couples who own homes under joint names. Criticism is pouring in that the policy should have been analyzed more thoroughly before its release.

Reporter Kim Beom-joo has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the Ministry of Government Legislation website.

The legislative notice for the revision of the Comprehensive Real Estate Holding Tax Act has already drawn more than 5,000 comments.

Various opinions are pouring in, such as questioning the fairness of raising taxes for non-resident single-home owners or joint-name property holders.

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

Factoring in multi-home owners and filtering them out to isolate non-resident single-home owners, the number is estimated to be around 1 million.

Under this tax revision plan, these non-resident single-home owners have suddenly become a major tax target.

For instance, a homeowner whose property just exceeds 2 billion won in market value is exempt from the comprehensive real estate holding tax if they reside in it, but non-residents will now be required to pay 1.85 million won.

Many people choose to live elsewhere due to job relocations or childcare issues, and they are asking if they are expected to move every time. They complain, asking if they are supposed to pay acquisition taxes, registration taxes, and brokerage fees amounting to nearly 100 million won just to buy and sell a 2 billion won apartment.

There is also the issue of jointly-owned property between spouses.

Currently, even if owners do not reside in the property, a basic deduction is granted when calculating the comprehensive real estate holding tax up to a public appraisal value of 1.8 billion won, but this will be reduced to 800 million won in the future.

This is actually lower than the deduction for single-name ownership.

The National Assembly amended the law six years ago in 2020, promising to reduce comprehensive real estate holding taxes if homes were registered 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 regarding how many people will have to pay more taxes due to non-resident single homes and joint ownership, how much extra they will pay, and what impact it will have on the market, it has yet to release the results.

The government is now offering remedies and explanations, stating that it will expand the acceptable reasons for non-residence and allow joint-name owners to pay taxes under a single name.

However, it appears necessary to accept the criticism that policies should have been presented to the public only after thorough statistics and analysis were conducted from the beginning.

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