Real Estate Rental Income Earners Increasing Annually
Top 0.1% Number 1,209... Average Exceeds 800 Million Won
It has been confirmed that there are 1,209 real estate rental income earners who make over 800 million won annually, belonging to the top 0.1% of rental income earners.
According to data received from the National Tax Service by the office of Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, there were 1,209,861 real estate rental income earners among comprehensive income tax filers in 2021.
This number has been increasing annually, with 1,093,550 in 2019 and 1,137,534 in 2020. Additionally, total rental income also rose from 20.0725 trillion won in 2019 and 20.9516 trillion won in 2020 to 21.4971 trillion won in 2021.
The average annual rental income per real estate rental income earner in 2021 was 17.77 million won. This is 44.2% of the average annual earned income of all workers during the same period, which was 40.24 million won.
Among rental income earners, the 1,209 individuals in the top 0.1% reported a total income of 985.2 billion won, averaging 815 million won per person. The average income for the top 1% was 275.76 million won, and for the top 10%, it was 83.42 million won.
The income of 12,099 people in the 49th to 50th percentile among rental income filers was 111.6 billion won. This means that the median rental income earner earned an average of 9.22 million won.
Representative Yang pointed out, “The income polarization phenomenon caused by real estate ownership remains severe.”
In fact, although the economy is recovering as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, income satisfaction polarization has worsened.
According to National Tax Service data, the average annual income of the top 0.1% in combined income (earned income plus business, financial, and rental income) in 2021 was 1.8497 billion won. This is 70 times the median income of 26.6 million won when all households are ranked by income level.
The average annual combined income of the top 1% was 470 million won, 17.7 times the median income, and the top 10% earned 146.4 million won on average, 5.5 times the median income.
Comparing 2018 and 2021, the average annual income of high earners in the top 0.1% increased by 126.13 million won per year. The top 1% saw an annual increase of 24.65 million won.
On the other hand, among 25,359,000 integrated income taxpayers, 40.5%, or 10,266,321 people, earned less than the annual minimum wage of 21.87 million won. This amount is calculated based on the 2021 hourly minimum wage of 8,720 won.
Also, according to the ‘2023 Q1 Household Trends Survey’ released by Statistics Korea on the 27th, the proportion of deficit households nationwide in the first quarter was 26.7%, up 3.2 percentage points from 23.5% in the first quarter of last year. This means that more than one in four households had expenditures exceeding their income.
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