Lee Hyung-il Says "Differentiation Needed Based on Actual Residence" Amid Single-Home Tax Debates at National Assembly

[Anchor]

Lee Hyung-il, nominee for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, has clarified that differentiation between residential and non-residential properties is necessary regarding the tax reform proposal. However, the Democratic Party, which has received the tax reform proposal, is voicing that the current revisions are still not sufficient.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the details.

[Reporter]

Nominee Lee Hyung-il, nominated as the economic chief for the second-term Lee Jae-myung administration, explained that the government's tax reform proposal was revised in less than a month to reflect criticisms that the differentiation of the comprehensive real estate holding tax for non-residential single-home owners was excessive.

However, he emphasized that a distinction was made between residents and non-residents.

[Lee Hyung-il / Nominee for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance: While we ease the differentiation (between actual resident and non-resident single-home owners), I believe some distinction must still be maintained, which is why we set the distinction (for the basic comprehensive real estate tax deduction) at 1.4 billion won and 1.2 billion won...]

Nominee Lee stated that he plans to reflect rational points if raised during the National Assembly deliberation process, while also making it clear that the direction of the tax reform proposal is a housing market policy centered on "residence."

[Lee Hyung-il / Nominee for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance: We have submitted the current proposal to the National Assembly by maintaining all existing measures to convert various ownership-based deductions into residence-based deductions.]

The final finalized tax reform proposal by the government reverted the basic comprehensive real estate tax deduction for non-residential single-home owners from the initial 900 million won back to the current 1.2 billion won, but maintained the difference from the 1.4 billion won applied to actual resident single-home owners.

The plan to reorganize the special long-term holding deduction for capital gains tax and the comprehensive real estate tax credit—which were previously granted based on the holding period—to focus on the residence period has also been kept intact.

Although the government has taken a step back, the Democratic Party points out that it is still not enough.

[Oh Ki-hyung / Democratic Party Lawmaker (MBC Radio 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus'): I do not think (the party's requests) are fully reflected. Regarding the issue of non-residential single households, we need to monitor the situation further.]

Earlier during party-government consultations, the Democratic Party strongly conveyed its stance to the government that the distinction between residents and non-residents should be eliminated for single-home owners. As a result, debates between the government and the ruling party over tax reform seem inevitable during the parliamentary review process.

(Video reporting: Lee Jae-young, Video editing: Kim Yoon-sung, Design: Park Tae-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.