Korea crypto tax meeting: exchanges seek rules, no delay

At a glance

The operators of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX and Gopax asked the Ministry of Finance and Economy on Tuesday for clear tax rules by transaction type and for time to build tax-reporting systems, Yonhap reported.
No decision on delaying or scrapping the 22% tax, due on 1 Jan 2027, came out of the meeting, according to Etoday. First Vice Minister Kwon Dae-young said the ministry would weigh the views and coordinate with other ministries.

First Vice Minister Kwon Dae-young chaired the meeting on Tuesday morning at the Seoul Regional Public Procurement Service, with officials from the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the industry and tax experts, Yonhap reported in Korean, citing the ministry.

Industry attendees were Dunamu, which runs Upbit, Bithumb, DigitalX, Coinone and Streami, which runs Gopax, along with DAXA, the exchanges’ self-regulatory alliance, and Tiger Research, Yonhap said.

The exchanges said trading has become more varied and complex since the tax was legislated, and that clear standards would reduce uncertainty for taxpayers and businesses, the ministry said, according to Yonhap. They also asked for time to build and test systems for submitting tax data, and for fairness between users of Korean and overseas platforms.

“We need to respect the principle that wherever there is income, there is tax,” Kwon said, in Yonhap’s English translation. “For that principle to take root in the market, we need both tax infrastructure and a market regulatory framework.”

He said the ministry would review cross-border information exchange, tax criteria for each transaction type and the ease of filing, Yonhap reported.

What the experts said

Park Hoon, a professor at the University of Seoul, presented on the main issues. “Major countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan already tax crypto, but Korea has postponed implementation three times since the tax was created in 2020,” he said, according to Yonhap (our translation). He called for a comprehensive roadmap.

Experts at the meeting urged clearer rules for staking and other transaction types, and suggested the government consider loss carry-forwards and simpler filing, Yonhap said. They also said the Digital Asset Basic Act, Korea’s planned framework law for crypto markets, should be taken into account (Korea’s Digital Asset Basic Act talks).

Delay still open

Attendees told Etoday that officials did not stress taxing on schedule, but did not promise a delay or offer concrete fixes either. These accounts come from unnamed participants and have not been independently confirmed by CryptoWatchDesk.

The tax would apply 22%, including local income tax, to annual gains from selling or lending crypto above a basic deduction of ₩2.5 million (about $1,880 or €1,670). As CryptoWatchDesk reported in Monday’s preview of the meeting, a Democratic Party bill filed on 16 Oct by Park Min-gyu would tie the start to Korea’s first exchange of crypto data under the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which its sponsors expect to mean 2029.

It is not the only bill. Song Eon-seok of the People Power Party has filed a bill to abolish the tax, and party colleagues Kim Sang-hoon and Jeong Seong-guk have filed delay bills, Etoday reported.

What’s next

The National Tax Service (NTS) is preparing detailed guidelines. Lim Kwang-hyun, then head of the NTS, told a parliamentary audit on 13 Oct that they could be ready around November, but said staking rules needed to be agreed with the finance ministry, Etoday reported. Guidelines published in November would leave about two months before the start date.

For the wider picture, Sunday’s Asia Ten has the week’s other Korean policy moves. In Europe, Latvia’s crypto tax overhaul passed last week.

This is not tax advice.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.