[Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Shock] Number of Eligible People Reaches 950,000 This Year... 42% Surge in One Year

Ministry of Economy and Finance Announces Details of Housing Portion Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Notices
Tax Amount 1.8 Trillion KRW → 5.7 Trillion KRW... Tripled

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] This year, the number of taxpayers subject to the housing portion of the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax (종합부동산세, Jonghap Budongsan Se) reached 950,000. This is not only an increase of 280,000 compared to last year's taxpayers but also significantly exceeds the ruling party's estimate of 760,000. The notified tax amount rose to 5.7 trillion KRW, more than tripling from last year.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced that the number of housing portion comprehensive real estate tax notices this year is 947,000, with a tax amount of 5.7 trillion KRW. The number of taxpayers increased by 280,000 (about 41.9%) compared to the previous year, and the notified tax amount surged by 3.9 trillion KRW (216.7%). However, considering that the actual finalized tax amount is expected to decrease by about 10% compared to the notified amount due to taxpayers' combined exclusion declarations (based on 2020 data), the Ministry forecasts the actual tax amount to be around 5.1 trillion KRW.

Among the notified tax amount of 5.7 trillion KRW, multi-homeowners and corporations bear 88.9% of the tax. This proportion has significantly increased from 57.8% last year.

In particular, the number of taxpayers and tax amount for those owning three or more homes (including two homes in regulated areas) surged by 415,000 (78%) and 2.6 trillion KRW (223%), respectively. Multi-homeowners with three or more homes bore 96.4% of the multi-homeowners' tax amount (2.7 trillion KRW).

Additionally, to prevent evasion of the comprehensive real estate tax burden, the government strengthened corporate tax criteria, resulting in the number of corporate taxpayers rising to 62,000 (279%) and the tax amount increasing to 2.3 trillion KRW (311%).

The proportion of single-homeowners in the total notified taxpayers decreased. Based on the notified tax amount, they bore 200 billion KRW, accounting for only 3.5% of the total, and their share among all taxpayers dropped to 13.9% from 18% the previous year.

The comprehensive real estate tax is levied on individuals who own taxable houses and land subject to property tax in Korea as of the tax base date (June 1 every year). Prior to this, the Democratic Party's Special Committee on Real Estate estimated the number of housing portion comprehensive real estate tax payers at about 765,000, with a tax amount forecasted at 5.7363 trillion KRW.