South Korea's Ruling Party Files Bill to Delay Crypto Tax to 2029
Key Takeaways
- •South Korea's ruling party has submitted a bill that would postpone the nation's digital asset gains tax from 2027 to 2029.
- •Under existing law, a 20% tax applies to annual net virtual asset gains above 2.5 million won, with collection set to begin on January 1, 2027.
- •The tax's start date has already been delayed repeatedly, moving from an initial January 2022 target to 2023, then 2025, and then 2027 under a December 2024 National Assembly revision.
- •The bill was filed amid a sharp market selloff in which the KOSPI fell 7.57% to 5,554.22, the KOSDAQ dropped 7.65%, and circuit breakers halted trading on both exchanges, while Bitcoin slipped 3.40% to $81,148.34.
- •Successive postponements have been driven partly by concerns that the levy would place an asymmetric burden on retail investors, whose equity gains are largely untaxed, with trading concentrated on domestic platforms such as Upbit and Bithumb.
South Korea's ruling party has filed a legislative bill to postpone the country's planned tax on digital asset gains to 2029, the latest in a series of deferrals to one of the most closely watched measures in the nation's crypto policy framework. The outcome will determine when South Korea first begins collecting tax on virtual asset trading profits — a step that has been postponed since the original January 2022 target.
The filing came amid a severe selloff across Korean markets. In an update issued at 09:41 UTC on October 15, COINOTAG reported that the benchmark KOSPI closed down 7.57% at 5,554.22, while the junior, technology-focused KOSDAQ fell 7.65%. Circuit breakers halted trading on both exchanges during the session. Bitcoin slipped 3.40% to $81,148.34.
Under existing law, South Korea plans to impose a 20% tax on annual net gains from virtual asset transactions exceeding 2.5 million won, with collection scheduled to begin on January 1, 2027. That start date has already been pushed back repeatedly — from an initial target of January 2022, to 2023, then to 2025, and, under a revision passed by the National Assembly in December 2024, to 2027. The newly filed bill would delay the levy by a further two years, to 2029. Because the current 2027 date was itself written into law by that December 2024 revision, shifting it again would require the new bill to pass the National Assembly in its own right.
Successive postponements have been driven in part by concerns that the levy would place an asymmetric burden on retail investors, whose equity gains are largely untaxed under South Korea's current tax system. South Korea remains one of the world's most active cryptocurrency markets, with retail trading concentrated on domestic platforms such as Upbit and Bithumb — the segment of the market the 20% levy and its 2.5 million won threshold would apply to once it takes effect.
Attention now turns to the National Assembly, where the bill's review has no announced timeline. Until lawmakers act, the January 1, 2027 start date remains in force under current law.
This content was first published on COINOTAG.
