Bitcoin Forum

It's been a long time coming but it looks like they're finally here. Crypto taxes in South Korea.
Took them long enough. Honestly they don't look that bad. it's better than the capital gains threat that was being thrown around for a while.
20% on gains, minimum threshold is $2k/year, filed under income tax, starting October 2021.

https://thenews.asia/korean-crypto-tax-amendment-sent-for-review/

I don't live in Korea, but I find this interesting nonetheless.

The disgruntled citizens have a good point with this:

Not sure what the rationale is behind hitting crypto owners harder than people investing in the stock market, but then again a lot of decisions made by government committees don't make a hell of a lot of sense anyway.

It seems really strange to me that news stories like this are appearing over 10 years after the creation of bitcoin.  It amazes me that there are still governments (and not just Korea's) that haven't completely figured out to handle cryptocurrency from a regulatory standpoint.  It's still like the wild west sometimes. 

I think 20% tax is high considering that a lot of countries are still enjoying free tax from crypto trading. But maybe, there are benefits among SKoreans?? Watching how SKoreans here will react to this news...

I can feel the South Korean crypto supporters. There is indeed an apparent discrimination against them in this leaked tax proposal for cryptocurrency. With an income tax as high as 20% and a minimum threshold of as low as $2,000 a year, this looks like hard persecution against crypto investors.

Indeed, how do crypto investors or traders differ from stock investors or traders?

I can only hope that their planned petition directed to the president himself would push through and would bear some good news. After all, this is just a mere proposal for now. But it makes me curious as to why this information was not made public until a leak happened.

What I understand is that the government determined that the minimum threshold is proportionally the same. If they matched the thresholds, then they wouldn't get anything from crypto traders. If they made the crypto threshold 16k, then the stocks threshold would have to be around $128k. Bear in mind the gov have raided exchanges in korea so many times I'm sure they scooped up second and third cooked books to determine real transaction values.

I think it seems like a lot of benefits for South Korea Everyone will be able to use cryptocurrencies free of charge Fiat has increased the circulation of the tax because it is supported by the government as a currency. It will make much better decisions and increase investment in the stock market The value of the transaction will increase.

I think it's because stock markets and people investing in stock markets actually circulate in their home Economy. The one who buys the security on stock exchange provides liquidity on the stock exchange of that country while coming to cryptocurrency chances are trading in cryptocurrency you would throw up the currency outside of your country. This makes currency weaker. Stock markets will always get advantage over cryptocurrency in eyes of authorities. But yes taxing cryptocurrency is still a mystery. Governments need some chunky mechanism to do so.

This is as good as it can get. The proposed 20% tax rate is much lower, when compared to the same for the other countries. On top of that, small-scale traders who earn profits up to $2,000 per year doesn't have to pay any tax. This has to be one of the most encouraging news to appear here since the start of this year. But then, I hope that this law won't be changed further, because South Korean government has a habit of backtracking on their promises.

Looks good if considered that it is not considered as capital against tax which was likely to be considered. So assuming 20% is a decent as now there is a proper regulation and understanding among the people that on 20% needs to be paid as tax. Some countries might have cheaper than this and some countries may have more tax on crypto depending upon their government rules. Also, up to 2k profit per year is not taxable which is also a good thing for part time earners.

Not surprising considering they have a records of taxing a lot from their citizens[1]. Well, I guess if that means better public facility then everyone is okay with that.

I don't really know how personal taxing works there but I bet most of the time they will depends on individual conscience to actually report their income. Or, just straight up collect data from every centralized exchange on their territory and then links every user with real identity.

[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/south-korea/personal-income-tax-rate

First of all, South Korea is one of the few countries that have fully legalized and regulated the cryptocurrency trading. The situation there is much better, when compared to other countries such as China and India, where the cryptocurrency users have to undergo all sorts of harassment and vilification. The 20% tax rate is quite decent in my opinion. Even in the United States, the long-term capital gains tax is somewhere in the vicinity of 20% (it used to be 15%, but then Obama increased it in 2013).

Governments are against cryptocurrency, because they weren't able to tax the transactions. How Korea government gonna collect the data on transactions. With the growing technology even on the traditional system loop holes were found and people are enjoying tax exemption. With bitcoin transactions things can be done in a anonymous manner knowing the end to end users. Already several countries have done it, and now it's the turn of Korea to tax cryptocurrency trading.

Point is there in case it won't be something like that.


Citizen of south Korea understand what this implemented tax being place
from their crypto assets and trades.


Depending from countries who already accept and embrace this industry,
we know that it's only few countries who
are adopting and accepting this market and in terms to south Korea where
they really one of those who completely adopt.


Wondering how this can be implemented, in case most of those holders and traders
declared that they are only gaining less than 2k.

At least that Korea started to embrace cryptocurrency. There is a high chance that it could be integrated to other services.

 Here in our place cryptocurrency is still not that known though it is already integrated. Their is an app already with crypto available to buy. It has been put to good news like being able to pay bills, buy pre paid load or for internet connection and could be also use for trading if one want to do it by himself.

Unfortunately, I couldn't read what the "capital gains tax law" is in order to properly understand what the cryptocurrency tax debate is really about. I guess they finally considering this because of the not-so-wealthy cryptocurrency traders who earn from trading cryptocurrency in the country?

One possibility is that their aim is to dissuade people from getting involved in crypto by making the stock market more appealing. Perhaps in an attempt to protect citizens from scams and extreme volatility in an unregulated market. No evidence for this though, just speculating.

I think a lot of governments didn't really understand it, and hoped it would just go away. Obviously that's not happened, and as the amount of money in crypto grows, governments are being forced to face it. The fact that there is such wide variation between jurisdictions on not only what taxes to apply but also, fundamentally, on what bitcoin 'is', suggests that there is still a lack of understanding, and that new definitions and laws are required to meet this new technical innovation.

Not bad at all. That's the maximum rate on long term capital gains in the US. Short term gains can be taxed as high as 37%.


Probably for the same reasons Fincen and the FATF subjected crypto to much lower reporting thresholds vs. traditional banks and money transmitters. For one thing, that's the general direction things are headed: as new laws are passed they are only going to become increasingly rigid, regarding reporting and compliance requirements. The other thing is that crypto really lends itself to tax evasion since it can circumvent third parties who are normally pressured into reporting on or withholding from their customers. Lower thresholds mean more prospective tax evaders will show up on the tax authority's radar.


Just goes to show you that governments really do move at a snail's pace.

Yes, we can take that as positive news in a way for making the adoption better in South Korea.

Well, if the citizens would be good with that, there must be no problem to look at. Maybe if the rate of South Koreans earning more than the minimum threshold, they will modify it and increase the minimum threshold per year.

They just want a part of your profits and it seems they are proposing tac only for crypto trading so this is not going to help in the adoption only people have to pay profits to their governments.And as others said the threshold amount should be increased $2000 is really low amount to pay 20% if your taxes.

I am not a Korean citizen but a 20% is quite high, the good one is that the Korean government sees that crypto will be something bigger than now so they taxes crypto.
In my opinion it could be that if this works to increase the country's income then other countries will follow the same steps by taking taxes instead of banning cryptocurrency in their countries

It is not bad at all,,, I think I already saw this news though and I commented that it sounds like a really low price for tax if I am honest. Imagine if I manage to get my 1 BTC safe and Bitcoin hits 100,000$! I would be SO happy to pay 20,000$ as tax and happily keep the rest free and no need to worry. Good rate I must say.

This is not bad at all. At least the Korean government has agreed that the cryptocurrency is a real asset bringing benefits to not just the investors but also to them. This regulation will make bitcoin becoming more legal in particular. In general, Korea is one of the strongest countries in Asia. This move will be witnessed by other countries and they might see cryptos with the same eyes as the Korean.

However,  20% on crypto trading is extremely high by the way. Although there are many advantages we can gain when the law is passed, this high tax rate might put investors in worry and frustration. Many will choose the way to abandon crypto trading and run back to their old business.


Lower the tax rate will increase the happiness to everyone and make trading activities in Korea become stronger. I hope that they will reconsider this amendment before it will get passed. Discrimination is being put on crypto trading since, until 2023, a new law will have been passed on the stock market

It is typical of what is happening in other countries too... they see it is becoming a trend world wide and they know it is the future, but they do not want it to be favored over traditional Fiat investment options, so what do they do?.... The allow it, but they put a heavy tax burden on it to reduce the possible gains and the interest in this as a trading tool.  ::)

Why can they not just be open-headed like the Japanese and just allow it to flourish? It is political decisions like this that are killing global economies.  ::)  (Bitcoin is legal tender in Japan)

Tax is always required for anything that the government regulate, so I think the government would not come up with that rate without considering all the necessary factors as a basis. 20% is not a burden, or should not be burden because AFAIK, taxes are only impose on profit from trading.

This is the highlight from the link in the OP.

It's classified as income so basically the government will always have a say for the profits that they'll get.

Tax is permanent and that's now coming into crypto people. South Korea has taken the first step and this will give the idea to other countries that they have now another source of income tax.

That is simply too high in my opinion, they do not seem to realize that this is not like any other business, people that are trading crypto are very sensitive to this kind of regulation and most of them will just look for another exchange in a jurisdiction that charges no taxes, while I understand the desire to get revenue from somewhere taking into account the special circumstances we are in I think this is going to be counterproductive over the long term as people will just find other platforms to exchange their bitcoin.

I see this as both a win and a lose for people. Now there are methods to do this that could make it better, but if the government is taxing bitcoin (or generally crypto trading) that is a way of saying "we see crypto and we agree that you should use it and trade it and we support you" because they are taxing it and when a government taxes something they are making it very legit, you can do whatever you want in crypto world in Korea and you will not face governmental backlash.

This is the good part obviously, the bad part is, if they do not charge it yearly, that means you could make a trade, profit, pay taxes, and when you do another one you lose and you do not pay taxes and now you are in trouble, so it has to be yearly and has a set date beforehand in order for people to prepare themselves for it.

for me its better if we can remmit our tax earlier than a year like monthly or weekly , in that way it wont be too heavy for us to pay just like what we did on our other payments  .

 there is no bad side with this , only good because crypto are now going to be supported plus crypto users can do something good with thier money in the form of taxes instead of using those money for other useless things that arent beneficial to thier country/economy  .

For taxes of 20%, it is very high in my opinion, the South Korean government should consider again related to its decision. This is unfair
for cryptocurrency investors in South Korea, I don't understand why tax on cryptocurrency is greater than that stock market. What is feared
the volume of crypto trading in South Korea could decrease, in my hunch the government is doing this for accelerate the economic recovery
in South Korea. So the government has funds for handling COVID-19.

What kind of benefits? Do you really think government will take this money in order to help you? Leave those 20% to me and that's a help from you. Import/local production = taxed, wages = taxed, everything is double, triple and even more taxed and that's very bad.
The republic of Georgia decided to not tax not only bitcoin/crypto trading, also don't tax mining too and the reason was to let people earn some money because unemployment is a big problem there.
Hope other governments will do the same, let people earn money and don't make them poor.

If you think 20% on capital gains is not that bad then you will understand when you are trading huge number of coins, i think people will overcome these restrictions and hopefully bitcoin can be used as it is intended. I am not from the country but i would not want to pay this much and if i was living in Korea i would find other ways and i will be happy to pay the tax but it should be a fair deal.

Oh well I guess we need not fear South Korea ever taking over world commerce to any extent if this is their understanding of free trade.   Restricting and removing 20% of a global economic trade every time it goes near your country is a sure way to avert that revenue stream from interaction within your national boundaries.   Its really a negative and poor understanding of how a society gains from capitalism and free exchange of value, good, ideas and services.    All of which are disenabled by the great clodding speedbump the government is putting in the way.
   Nobody is going to benefit from this tax, its nonsense just like all the people who believe a country can balance its budget with 90% taxes on the rich.   You are just helping every tax free haven to gain the benefit from those resources and people elsewhere.   Any law in any country has to be competitive or it will just hand the business onto a better system.   Korea does alot of things great, they are pretty lost to even consider this imo but doubt they listen.

20% isn't that far off from the usual for profits related to capital gains. It's a bit on the high side, but surely not unreasonable.

Case in point is that by putting it in law for a country like South Korea, where application of law is known to be strict, then exchanges couldn't do much but conform. More regulation on that regard can't always be bad in my view. Korea was accused of having some rigged exchanges and in some occasions even driving crypto prices for a worldwide market, with what might have been fake trades. Now with a tax, local exchanges will either seek to legitimize themselves or completely lose business. For the rest of the world I can see this as a decent move from the government because it'll drive some less legitimate exchanges out of the market. But overall it would also mean less interest to invest in crypto. Both due to costs but also bureaucracy.

Even though it is a way for them to increase the country's income, it is still not right because it is really high. Actually the tax in my country for those who buy and sell stocks are only 12% of the commission of the broker so it is basically too low. I think many traders will be discouraged to trade cryptocurrencies because of too high tax. Imagine you are a scalper and you are keep buying and selling crypto in a matter of hours or even minutes and you keep paying 20% of tax, it is basically not good for me.

You believe that 20% is too high? Within the United States, long-term capital gains tax rate is 23.8% (It was 15% during the Bush era, then Obama made it 20% and later added a 3.8% medicare tax on it). When compared to the tax rates in other countries, I would say that the tax slab proposed by the South Korean government is very much reasonable. I do oppose capital gains tax, as in my opinion it amounts to double taxation. But most of the governments do have this tax and therefore we need to live with it.

But the tax amount is justified? Imagine you are earning 10000 dollars in a year you are expected to pay 2000 for government but for a traditional investment the threshold is lot higher and it seems 16K so this is kind of unfair laws.

High taxes are really hurting our pockets, especially if we are South Koreans. This is definitely too much if I were a South Korean crypto trader. If the reason to set this high tax percentage for the purpose of recovering the economy, this isn't good at all. South Korea can definitely recover their economy without the need of targeting cryptocurrency traders who are living there.

I don't honestly believe that there will be some "special benefits" for South Korean cryptocurrency traders who are willingly oblige to pay 20% tax. At the expense of cryptocurrency traders' hard-earned income to revive the economy of South Korea? I would say no.

I pay a lot more than 20% myself. I hate taxes as much as the next guy, but 20% doesn't seem half bad.

Stock traders in South Korea get taxed on capital gains at 22%, FYI.

South Korea is known as a country with a good tax ratio. This proves the high level of tax awareness and also reflects that the South Korean tax authority shows the optimization of its ability to tax sectors that have not been optimally explored. The key to the success of Korean taxation is the use of technology in taxation (e-tax and financial technology, integrated tax systems,), which also shows that the South Korean tax authorities are very adaptive in responding to the times. Sophisticated technology and a fully integrated taxation database can close the tax avoidance gap. Tax reforms that are continually being implemented in South Korea show high awareness about the vital role of tax in a country. Innovations to stimulate the expansion of the tax base by reducing the tax burden have been carried out by the South Korean Government.

As a result of a pandemic that has weakened national and global economic joints and easing policies during the pandemic, it is likely that many countries will make tax tightening after this to cover the widening budget deficit. For the government to impose a tax on cryptocurrency trading, it is like rowing two goals to be achieved, the economy is spinning and there is income for the country.

It's very high! 20% tax on crypto trading will hurt a trader even if Korea will use it to help their economic status.  It means the 20%tax will less to your total asset everytime you're going to cash out. It's not good because you will fee a high amount for transaction then additional fee for tax. Very difficult to the part of trader.

Seems the South Korean investors are not happy with it, but $2k minimum to get taxed  is really low threshold. Well atleast if they can adjust it to $10k atleast but it is up to Korean regulators on how they implement the matter.

Maybe they can still lobby to decrease the percentage of tax here as it is only proposed at the moment. Really not favourable to their traders. A lot of us are still enjoying  free tax but seems that S. Korea is fast tracking about this regulation. I hope they can reduce the number here because this may give them the reason not to use crypto.

Well $2k minimum to get taxed is not so low, at least not for many people who live in the countries with much lower paychecks, but I understand that $2k for some people is extremely low.  Anyway we can't do much about this, when government made its mind it's what it is, you can choose to obey or you can choose to skip few regulations and find a way to trade anonymously.
It's interesting to watch S. Korea crypto steps, they are pioneers, they are doing some things for the first time and it will be a good example for others!

It is not an extremely low amount in any country.

$2K is a month's average salary (after tax deduction) in countries such as the United States and Canada. And in South Korea, with $2K you can pay rent for 4-5 months in a city such as Busan or Seoul. Those who want to complain are going to do that. But in my opinion, this is a very good deal for cryptocurrency users in South Korea, especially if you are considering cryptocurrency trading as a part-time profession.

Thats far high having 20% taxation for every gain cryptonians has?

I believe that this will never be go straight because how can every investors gain when they will be required with 20% high taxing?

And also they must strengthen Laws against  crypto scammer  because they sentenced this one with almost 3 years penalty taking more than 240 million dollars  from the people?

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-scammer-sentenced-by-south-korean-authorities

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If people saw their safeties in investing here in crypto?then they may be supported towards taxation that they are asking for.

Agreed, if this was a small tax like 5% or lower then many traders and investors could overlook it and just keep trading as usual but a tax of 20% on capital gains is simply going to make many traders and investors unprofitable so even if they do not want they will have to trade in another exchange not subject to the South Korean laws, then there are all of those that will move on just on principle and it is easy to see how the volume in those exchanges will go down, and this will only help the jurisdictions that have very low or no taxes and bring no benefit to South Korea.

20% is not that high depending on how much you think your country is actually helping you out with the taxes they are charging you. For example the taxes in Scandinavian countries are quite high as well, yet when you pay that, you know the government is looking after you as well, they are using all of that taxes to make sure that you are living a great life, and they will pay your health, your school, your retirement, basically you are all taken care of and have a decent life forever thanks to the taxes you pay. On contrary look at USA, you pay taxes, and government shoots you.

So, basically 20% on Korea might be good, might be much, might be little, it all depends on what Koreans think about their government, if they like it they will say it is fine, if they don't they will say it is a lot, it is a thing only a Korean can answer (or anyone who lives in Korea).

20% is too high for technology businesses now. This seems to be a ban for crypto businesses and startups in Korea. It seems that they are quite negative about crypto and do not want their people to participate in this decentralized market. This will cause a lot of difficulties for Korean businesses, maybe all will have to move to other countries to work.

You raise a fair point however I still think 20% is excessive, traders already have to pay a lot of money, like paying for the spread, paying commissions for each trade you make, paying for the transactions in an out the exchange, if you add a tax of 20% on your capital gains then many traders will simply become unprofitable and they will have to either forget about trading or move to another jurisdiction, and those that have a lot of money will surely move out and the South Korean government will not get anything remotely to what they were expecting with this new law.

What "other countries"? Germany and many other countries have 0% tax.

20% is quite high. In many countries a total income tax is about 18% so trading is taxed more in Korea than any other job in canada where you have 15% tax up to 47 thousand dollars a year.

Damn 20% is a bit high considering that the trader needs to pay other fees like transaction fees and platform fees. This can discourage traders from South Korea to trade cryptocurrency since a high percentage of tax is blocking their way toward the profit. Some cryptocurrency trader will be forced to switch into stock trading when this tax is applied to them. Crypto traders will be slap hard if this kind of tax implement in every country and becomes the standard.

Much better than in Germany, where you have to pay up to 45% on crypto gains if you buy and sell a crypto asset within a year :D However, if you hold it longer than a year all gains are tax-free. For short-term trades, I think the South Korean approach is much better by simply taxing all profits at 20%.

There would be no other options but to switch up into those traditional markets and avoid those ridiculous high tax percentage.I didnt expect that Korean Government would impose such high fees
on crypto trading and as you said where this one still do exclude trading fees and other things which would really be a big burden.If some traders would like to agree on said terms then
its their own choice but it is just really too much.Do they do have the chance to file up some petitions to make it lower?

No offence but this is way to much. I mean 20% is huge compared to the average traders not the institutions and over the counter point of sales outlets. I think they should really be clear about this tax system as it is not fair. Moreover, i am just hoping to see crypto being used in real world, that way there will not be much need for all these cash out which bring about taxation.

Not sure about South Korea specifically, but fees associated with trading and investment are usually tax deductible. If you're a high volume trader, that definitely eases some of the pain.


Germany only has 0% on long term (1+ year) gains. That doesn't really apply to traders. Otherwise it's a flat 25% + 5.5% solidarity surcharge.

In Canada, 50% of your capital gains are taxable. In the US, it's up to 37% on short term gains.

I would absolutely love to be getting taxed at 20%.....

That is really huge tax. If I'm one of the citizens of the Korea, I do not know if I will still continue to trade cryptocurrencies because for me it is lose lose situation. It is better to trade forex or even stocks because of its low tax. I never thought that a cryptocurrencies trading will be tax by the government, we are now used to pay commissions in different exchanges and it is not big as like that. It is really a pain in the ass for a certain out there especially or those short term traders.

I think the tax will be applied when the crypto users send the money from the exchanges to their bank account because if the government applied that in the exchanges, that will cost a big fee for the traders because they need to pay an extra fee in the exchanges. Or maybe the tax will be applied to the traders who can earn some percentage of the profit.

Amazing! The state integrates cryptocurrency into the economy but everyone is dissatisfied with this because now it necessary to pay taxes!
And they do not want to accept the fact that this is a kind of contract price
I think this is a fairly simple rule that has been working for a very long time - if you want to do [something] with [something] in the country, then you will have to pay for it in the country itself. At least in exchange for protection. I do not see anything wrong with this, given that the crypto is really now not a coin and more fin tool.

Korea is fast growing economy with this taxation is very important in  their part so if they can at least consider what is appropriate for every crypto investors i believe this is what they must consider.
but knowing them?i see no big deal for this taxation.

20% is big but considering crypto market is volatile then chances of gaining is there.the only problem i see here is how can they implement this?while this is decentralized market?
but anyway wish they will come to the agreement in which both party's will agree.

I think Korea will put taxes through crypto exchanges. So it means every Korean crypto exchange will required KYC and that will be the basis of Korean government because they can't put taxes to individual person because cryptocurrency is decentralized and government has no control on it. It means there is a transparency between the Korean government and to all crypto exchanges on their country.

Korea is one of the advanced countries, with top infrastructure, I do not doubt they will find a way to tax crypto traders in their country, but internet is a big place, some Koreans will find a way to stay under the greed and trade anonymously, or at least they will try doing that. In some countries people pay tax on crypto for years, and in some countries like mine is government is still far away from creating some crypto regulations, which I think is good for me, even when they come up with some rules I will try to stay anonymous as long as I can!

Finally, South Korea has decided on the size of the tax on profits from activities in the cryptocurrency. Twenty percent of the profit, if it exceeds $ 2,000 a year, is not that much. There are states that have set a much higher interest rate, and there is where it is lower. It should be borne in mind that governments are still experimenting: after all, if the tax is set too high, then people will evade payment, given that transactions with cryptocurrency are very difficult to track. Therefore, the amount of the tax will still change. The main thing is that the cryptocurrency continues to be legalized by states.

The answer from the crypto community in South Korea is here:

Only lawmakers reduced the tax by 2% for some crypto investors the solution is to emigrate to a crypto paradise country before the law takes effect such as Singapore, Switzerland, and Germany.

20% is a big number for taxing crypto enthusiast, would it apply to all crypto holders because that would mean that small scale crypto traders will have to suffer from this tax cuts, isn't the point of cryptocurrency is to become medium for free market? The thing about this is that cryptocurrency is sometimes the only way this people are earning their living which means that not all can afford to have that tax cuts, all government should have a very clear plan right now when it comes to cryptocurrency regulations because each time that they antagonize cryptocurrency means that they are slowly pushing away their citizens.

No wonder the South Korean economy is growing faster, it turns out that almost all sectors are taxed. Including crypto trading
will be affected 20% tax starting next year. There are positive and negative things for the citizens of South Korea related to this,
the positive thing means cryptocurrency already guaranteed legality. And the negative thing for traders with 20% profit cuts to
pay taxes is quite large.

I'm against taxation in any form. 20% might be fine in countries where there's no VAT, but 20% of capital gains on top of your 10% VAT in Korea is already close to one third of your income. Still rather lenient when compared to some EU countries like France where the state basically rips people off in any way it can.

I have accounts with several of the Korean exchanges, and I can say that KYC was already mandatory for these exchanges even before the new law was passed. In both Japan and South Korea, the regulation is quite strict and they want to make sure that no money laundering activity is conducted through the exchanges using either cryptocurrency or fiat cash.

20% is a fair game imo, but only if its an only taxation I mean without any additional taxes whatsoever.
If thats the case - I am glad that there is at least one country with adequate legal status of crypto

Korea has a well-developed Crypto community, they also focus on Blockchain technology development and implementation.
20% is a supposed to be a low level tax, as income tax vary from 35% to 42% (progressive scale).

   Fast growth in an economy comes from trade and taxation is an impediment to that and slows the economy as well as losing money to the inherent inefficiency in government, it also helps to make the country uncompetitive internationally.    The only real excuse for taxation is to reduce debt which aids stability and can improve prospects long term.     Since we live in an age of high debt and government over spending I doubt this is their intention.    
   Trading taxation should be separated from personal income and company taxation which rely on steady profits realised.   To tax trading itself is a failure like like leaving brakes on while driving, theres no benefit to direction tax on trade done for international assets such as crypto.    If they want to regulate industry and tax those nationally based enterprise thats something else I guess.

Especially if there is no tax on crypto transactions whatsoever, then its a really great deal.

I personally don't see another option for them to implement this taxation.
Its a good thing anyway, because you pay for your crypto to be fully legal which is nice

Unfortunately it was only a matter of time until countries start to tax crypto currencies. I think 20% is a little harsh, they could have easily started 10% and see their effects. Given that many countries don't have such high taxes yet, people might be inclined to switch to different exchanges outside of Korea. As with investing, taxes will play a big role in the future of crypto currencies. Losing out on 20% is very huge.

I think the Korean government won't let people not pay the tax, and they will investigate every people, no matter if they use crypto or not to pay the tax. The tax is important to them to help the government grow the country's economy, especially after their country gets attacked by the Covid-19. I hope that the government can give a fair tax to their people so they will not be a problem for everyone who has an income from the crypto trading.

Yeah they will go and file a case against those individuals that will going to violate or evade tax for it. And not only the small time violatora they will going to pursue but the government should after the big one or high profiles doing bitcoin trading. This is a good start for bitcoin industry and it will be a worldwide like betting where funds around the world will be distributed in accordance on how good a the people of that certain country do the trading.

Government is pushing it's citizens to actually use underhanded methods to hide the money they earn in cryptocurrencies and such , this way it will just increase the black market and money laundering in cryptocurrencies .

20% tax is not at all justifiable!!

-They should at least take consent of their citizens before doing something like this .

_*_

People often say that *Cryptocurrency is easy money* but unfortunately they don't know how hard it is to keep a track of everything that is going on with the market then comes the loss factor.

The market is highly volatile and with a biased Government they would for sure push it's citizens away from the trading of cryptocurrencies itself.

_*_

Plus for people commenting about the tax on the transactions.

Why ?

Why should there be any tax on cryptocurrencies ?

- It's Decentralized!! , The Government is not involved with anything in this area , transactions are already very high priced, claiming property of citizens is what the Government is doing.

Government always look for benefits, if they'll see that this implemented taxes will work then expect for more to come.

It's always possible that this la will be adopted by other countries if this will successfully helps S.Korea in terms of collecting much higher taxes, we all knew that crypto is well adopted from S.Korea and if other countries also wanted to deal with it then expect that they will do the same.

Taxes will also let the government to look forward in embracing this system.

While true no one is ever happy to pay more taxes to the government especially if you were paying no tax before so the reaction is justified, and while some members have given examples of other countries in which you need to pay even more taxes the truth is that 20% still seems excessive to me, the government takes no risk unlike the trader, when the trader lose the government does not lose a thing but when he wins they want 20% of the cut for doing nothing, and that is the truth as just a little while ago they charged not taxes so it is not like they are offering you more protection or anything.

This is no sad news if viewed from a different perspective other than the high tax rate. It would give the crypto traders legit license to keep on to their business and the use of cryptocurrency in the country. After paying the required tax for a couple of years, it will become like a common thing and the full advantage of them paying the tax will become so obvious.....

My advice to the investors is that they should accept what is before them; to pay the tax, so they live to smile in the near future as it will be a legalized way of payment and transactions with cryptocurrency just like every other system of the economy.

I think it is easy for the government to track people who don't pay the tax or if they want to violate the law because I am sure that the government will have their data. People will not be afraid if they're going to do trading because they can now be protected from the law, and that can make crypto adoption grow.

Besides that, with paying the tax, it can attract many new crypto traders or exchanges that will launch because their business now can take attention from the government, and people themselves will see that cryptocurrency can be one of the commodities or asset to them. I think the government will calculate how much they need to pay the tax, and I am sure that there is a range between the profit that they earn, so they will not have jealousy between them.