Bae Junyoung: "Democratic Party Must Respond on Virtual Asset Tax Delay... Put Bill on Nov. 2 Agenda"

“Dodging discussion with just two months until the tax takes effect”
The Democratic Party says, “We will decide within 1-2 weeks whether to postpone it”
If postponed, the bill is to be passed by the end of November

Rep. Bae Junyoung of the People Power Party urged the Democratic Party of Korea on October 31 to promptly decide whether to further postpone the virtual asset tax, which is scheduled to take effect in January 2027. He also called for a response to his proposal to place the relevant bill on the agenda of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee’s Tax Subcommittee on November 2.

Rep. Bae, the opposition party’s secretary on the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee, said in a statement on October 31, “The virtual asset tax is set to take effect on January 1, 2027, and there are only two months left, but issues surrounding tax fairness and investor protection remain unresolved. Is it right to set a date for people to pay taxes while the National Assembly has not even discussed the matter?”

Rep. Bae Junyoung speaks on a point of order. Yonhap News.

Rep. Bae said that as of the end of June, the number of domestic accounts eligible to trade virtual assets had exceeded 11.17 million, and about 77% of them, or 8.63 million accounts, held less than 1 million won. “This is a market in which young people and small-scale investors also participate, so loopholes in taxation must not become a burden on them,” he said.

He also cited the difficulty of determining income from overseas exchanges and peer-to-peer transactions as a problem. “Even if two people each earn 10 million won, a domestic trader would be taxed while the income of a trader using an overseas exchange may go undetected, allowing them to avoid taxes,” Rep. Bae said, warning that the burden could fall disproportionately on domestic investors. He also pointed to the current tax system, which does not allow losses to be deducted from profits in the following year, and the time exchanges need to prepare their tax systems.

“The People Power Party has introduced bills to abolish or postpone the tax, but the Democratic Party has been passive,” Rep. Bae said. “We proposed that the relevant bill be placed on the agenda of the Tax Subcommittee on November 2, but have yet to receive a response from the Democratic Party.” He added, “If the tax is justified, they should present their grounds. If they oppose abolishing or postponing it, they can make their case during the review process. We should reach a conclusion on whether to postpone the tax before it takes effect.”

The Democratic Party has said it will decide soon whether to further postpone the virtual asset tax. After a meeting with virtual asset service providers on October 30, Democratic Party lawmaker Oh Ki-hyung said, “We need to make a final decision within one to two weeks. If we decide to postpone it, the bill must be passed by the end of November.” As of October 31, however, no public response from the Democratic Party had been confirmed regarding Rep. Bae’s proposal to place the bill on the Tax Subcommittee’s agenda on November 2.

Democratic Party Policy Committee Chair Kwon Chil-seung also said on October 30, “Some believe the tax should proceed as scheduled in accordance with the principle that income should be taxed, while market participants say a postponement is unavoidable because the practical tax infrastructure is inadequate.” He said the party would promptly finalize its position.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.