Online Vote Results Confirm Special Committee
Top 2% Set as Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Threshold
Capital Gains Tax Exemption Raised from 900 Million to 1.2 Billion Won
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The Democratic Party of Korea decided on the 18th to ease the comprehensive real estate tax (종합부동산세) imposition criteria for single-home households from the current official appraisal price of 900 million KRW to 1.1 billion KRW, which corresponds to the top 2%, and to raise the capital gains tax exemption threshold from an actual transaction price of 900 million KRW to 1.2 billion KRW. The special deduction for long-term holding will be applied differentially according to the size of the capital gains.
On the same day, the Democratic Party held a real estate policy members' meeting and conducted an online vote on the special committee proposal on real estate containing these details. The leadership referred to the voting results and made the final decision to pass the special committee proposal.
Senior Spokesperson Ko Yong-jin announced, "The voting results confirmed that both the comprehensive real estate tax and capital gains tax proposals received majority support." He added, "Effectively, the controversies over these two real estate issues have been settled," and "Both proposals will be promoted as Democratic Party policies after going through the members' meeting." Although he did not disclose the online voting results, he stated, "It was a sufficient majority."
During the Democratic Party members' meeting that day, opinions for and against the easing of the comprehensive real estate tax and capital gains tax were sharply divided until the last moment. Members supporting the easing argued that tax relief was essential to appeal to moderate voters ahead of next year's presidential election, while opposing members claimed that this contradicted the Moon Jae-in administration's real estate policy direction. In response, the Democratic Party leadership held an online vote and, referring to the results, ultimately concluded to pass the easing proposals.
The Democratic Party decided to comprehensively reconsider measures related to the housing rental business operator system from scratch. Senior Spokesperson Ko told reporters, "Various issues such as problems faced by livelihood rental business operators and extension matters were raised on the ground, and the party intends to properly collect these opinions and readjust them to fit the current reality," adding, "We have conveyed various opinions to the government and plan to receive a revised proposal from the government side."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
