Korea proposes 20% tax on crypto trading starting 2021

[leea-1334]

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.

[slapper]

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.

7,387 people have signed the petition

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

[Kakmakr]

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)

[Maslate]

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...

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.

Only those earning more than about $2,000 per year will be subject to this tax assuming it passes.

[livingfree]

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

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.

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.

[South Park]

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/

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.

[RealMalatesta]

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 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.

[shoreno]

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 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  .

[Wawa2013]

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.

[shield132]

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...

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.

[ene1980]

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.

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.

[STT]

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.

[alani123]

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.

[Savemore]

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

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.

[bryant.coleman]

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

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.

[Findingnemo]

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

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.

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.

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.

[cheezcarls]

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/

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.

[exstasie]

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.

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.

[abhiseshakana]

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/

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.

[Alert31]

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.