Gangnam District Finds Missed Tax Reduction Benefits for Families with Newborns... 27 Million Won Refunded

Eight Households Identified for Missed Tax Reductions Through Data Integration

Seoul's Gangnam District (District Mayor Cho Sungmyung) has refunded 27 million won in acquisition tax to families with newborns by linking birth information with tax data. This was achieved as a result of introducing a proactive tax reduction system, the first of its kind among Seoul's autonomous districts.

Gangnam District Office exterior. Provided by Gangnam District Office.

The acquisition tax reduction program for childbirth and childrearing allows parents who purchase a home within a certain period before or after childbirth to receive an acquisition tax deduction of up to 5 million won. However, due to ambiguous legal interpretations regarding personal information protection, there were structural limitations preventing the linkage of birth information and tax data. As a result, unless citizens applied for the benefit themselves, they could not receive it, and administrative agencies were unable to identify households that missed out on the reduction.

To address these limitations, the district revamped its system to enable the review of acquisition tax reductions starting from the birth registration stage. Since October, Gangnam District has been the first in Seoul to add an "acquisition tax reduction review" item to the integrated birth application form, actively informing residents about the relevant program.

The district pursued proactive administration by linking birth information and tax data after reviewing decisions by the Personal Information Protection Commission and conducting legal reviews. Based on consent information collected during birth registration, the district compared and analyzed acquisition tax data to proactively identify eligible recipients for the reduction.

During November, the district cross-checked 4,707 cases of parental birth information from last year through this year with 50,540 cases of tax data, including acquisition tax and property tax. As a result, within just one month of the pilot program, the district identified eight additional households that had missed out on the reduction, with the total refund amounting to 27 million won.

Among these, five households had only received the first-time homebuyer reduction but were additionally informed about the more favorable childbirth and childrearing reduction program and received refunds. The remaining three households had not applied for any reduction and were at risk of paying the full tax amount, but received full refunds thanks to the district's guidance.

Cho Sungmyung, Mayor of Gangnam District, stated, "We have proactively established a thorough administrative system to ensure that no one misses out on their rightful tax reduction benefits. We will continue to implement policies that help ease the burden of childbirth and childrearing, focusing our efforts on making Gangnam a district where it is easy to have and raise children."