Ruling Party: "The Reduction of Comprehensive Real Estate Tax for Single-Homeowners Is Already Included in the December 16 Real Estate Measures"

Kim Jung-woo, the Democratic Party of Korea's Budget and Accounts Committee Secretary (center) / Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The ruling party, the Democratic Party of Korea, has presented a detailed plan for the 'comprehensive real estate tax relief for single-homeowners' that was announced during the general election campaign. However, since this content was already announced through the December 16 real estate measures last year, controversy is expected.

Kim Jung-woo, the ruling party's floor whip on the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee, said on the morning of the 21st at the National Assembly after a joint meeting between the floor leaders and standing committee whips, "During the general election campaign, we mentioned protecting single-homeowners, and related to this, the increase in the deduction rate for single-homeowners is included in the December 16 measures."

The part of the December 16 measures explained by Representative Kim related to protecting actual demanders involves expanding the tax credit rate and combined deduction rate for elderly single-homeowners subject to the comprehensive real estate tax. Through the December 16 measures, the government announced that it would raise the tax credit rate for elderly single-homeowners with long-term ownership to a maximum of 80%.

Previously, for the elderly, the tax credit rates were ▲10% for ages 60-65 ▲20% for ages 65-70 ▲30% for ages over 70. Additionally, the long-term ownership tax credit rates of ▲20% for 5-10 years ▲40% for 10-15 years ▲50% for over 15 years could be combined. If the conditions of being over 70 years old and owning for more than 15 years were met, a combined deduction of up to 80% was possible, but a separate limit was set so that only up to 70% could be deducted.

The measures included raising the deduction rates for elderly age groups by 10 percentage points each and also increasing the combined deduction limit by 10 percentage points to allow up to 80%, aiming to reduce the burden on actual demand single-homeowners.

Representative Kim explained, "Including these parts, in principle, the December 16 measures will be processed in this extraordinary session of the National Assembly." This point is criticized as quietly withdrawing the promised comprehensive real estate tax relief for single-homeowners made during the general election campaign in this extraordinary session.

Previously, President-elect Lee Nak-yeon and floor leader Lee In-young stated during the Gangnam area general election campaign that "we will promote a plan to ease the comprehensive real estate tax only for single-homeowners."

On the contrary, since the December 16 measures include raising the tax rate by up to 0.8 percentage points for those with three or more homes and two-homeowners in regulated areas, the overall comprehensive real estate tax burden is likely to increase.

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