South Korea Pushing to Tax Koreans for Crypto Trades

Recently Namgee Hong, deputy in charge of economic affairs for the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, said in an interview, “[if Koreans are profiting from trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, it would be preferable to tax them on it.]”

This statement comes less than a month after Bithumb was footed with a hefty capital gains tax bill for the foreign trades conducted on the platform. Currently, according to Korean tax law, there is no income tax on crypto gains, but non-Korean trades and can incur capital gains tax.

Hong said “[we won’t be able to seize taxes for 2019 or 2020, but we need to focus on the future at a faster pace. Much more follow-up work must be done.]” Follow-up work likely means more committee meetings and proposals from various groups within the ministry.

He expressed concern over the fact that only non-Koreans are taxed for crypto trades. The sentiment resounded throughout the interview that if someone is profiting financially from investments and trades in South Korea, then they should be taxed on it whether they be Korean or otherwise.

The biggest problem that Deputy Hong feels the economy of South Korea faces is a global one. There is tremendous uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets – including virtual currencies into the tax scheme and acknowledging their legitimacy as an asset class effectively increases that volatility both in Korea and abroad.

Furthermore, “[if the economy’s growth rate does not meet or exceed 2.4% per year, people will not feel the impact.]”

Ultimately, Hong noted that his biggest concern, and the focus of his position, was to maintain economic growth in his sector by keeping recent government fiscal deficits in check and ensuring that the national debt does not increase significantly on his watch. Increasing the amount of taxable events for Koreans would certainly help the