Tax Benefits for Single-Homeowners Also Apply to Two-Homeowners Due to Moving or Inheritance
[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Two-homeowners who own one general house and one low-priced local house worth less than 300 million KRW will be required to pay comprehensive real estate tax as a single homeowner starting this year. Those who have inevitably become two-homeowners due to moving or inheritance can also receive tax benefits as single homeowners.
According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 21st, the amendment to the Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rules of the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act containing these details will be implemented from the 23rd.
First, low-priced local houses located outside the metropolitan area or special autonomous cities/metropolitan cities will be excluded from the number of owned houses when calculating the comprehensive real estate tax. The standard for low-priced local houses has been fixed at a publicly announced price of 300 million KRW or less, and only one additional house is recognized due to concerns about speculation.
If a new house was acquired for moving but the existing house could not be disposed of immediately, the person will be recognized as a single homeowner if the existing house is transferred within two years.
In cases where a house is acquired through inheritance and the person owns one existing house and a low-priced local house together, they will pay comprehensive real estate tax as a single homeowner. The inherited house will be excluded from the number of houses for five years after inheritance for taxation purposes. In the case of inheriting low-priced houses without speculative intent (publicly announced price of 600 million KRW or less in the metropolitan area and 300 million KRW or less outside the metropolitan area), the single homeowner status can be maintained without a time limit. The special exclusion from the number of houses also applies indefinitely if the inherited house share is 40% or less. Additionally, there is no limit on the number of inherited houses, so even if multiple houses are inherited, the person can pay taxes as a single homeowner.
If considered a single homeowner through these special cases, a deduction is applied up to a publicly announced price of 1.1 billion KRW among the owned house values, so no tax needs to be paid. Even if tax is paid, the comprehensive real estate tax rate decreases from a maximum of 6% (multi-homeowner additional tax rate 1.2?6.0%) to 3% (basic tax rate 0.6?3.0%), and elderly or long-term homeowners can receive tax credits up to 80%. The special case beneficiaries include 47,000 temporary two-homeowners, 10,000 inherited house owners, and 35,000 low-priced local house owners. Applications for special cases can be made through the National Tax Service Hometax system by the end of this month.
Furthermore, single homeowners aged 60 or older or who have owned a house for more than five years can defer the payment of comprehensive real estate tax until the house is disposed of. They must submit a tax payment deferral application to the head of the relevant tax office before the tax payment deadline.
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