YouTuber's Monthly Income 9.34 Million Won... Three Times the Average Salary of Office Workers

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Last year, the monthly income reported by individual media creators (YouTubers) was 9,338,000 KRW, which is three times the average monthly salary of wage earners (3,060,000 KRW, based on the 2018 National Tax Service reported income of wage earners).

According to the status of new registrations and 2019 income reports of YouTubers submitted by the National Tax Service to Park Hong-geun, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 330 YouTubers reported their income last year, amounting to 18.49 billion KRW. This figure is the first disclosed income scale since the National Tax Service established new industry codes for new businesses such as YouTubers in September last year.

For YouTubers, if they have more than 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 hours of annual watch time, they can attach ads to their videos and generate revenue. As the individual media market size grew from 3.8 trillion KRW in 2018 to 5.17 trillion KRW last year and is expected to reach 7.9 trillion KRW by 2023, the taxation and revenue sharing of YouTubers by tax authorities are expected to become increasingly important.

Since the establishment of the new industry code last year, a total of 691 YouTubers have registered as business operators. Among them, 332 YouTubers reported as tax-exempt businesses without employees or physical facilities, and 359 YouTubers had human resources (such as video editors, scriptwriters) and physical facilities (such as separate broadcasting studios).

This year, the number has increased, with a total of 2,387 individual business operators newly registered as media content creators as of August. Considering that there were 4,379 YouTubers with over 100,000 subscribers among Korean-made YouTube channels as of May this year, many YouTubers still remain in the tax blind spot.

Among the registered YouTubers, those with facilities and relatively large-scale operations are classified as taxable businesses, required to file value-added tax twice a year and comprehensive income tax in May of the following year. Those without employees or physical facilities are classified as tax-exempt businesses, exempt from VAT filing but required to file comprehensive income tax. The income data disclosed this time pertains to relatively large-scale YouTubers with facilities who reported their income last year.

Among YouTubers with physical and human facilities, 330 reported their income last year, with a total reported income of 18.49 billion KRW. Converted to a monthly average per YouTuber, their average monthly income was 9,338,000 KRW, and the estimated annual average income reached 112 million KRW. Advertising revenue from Google, a major income source for YouTubers, was reported at 7.355 billion KRW, accounting for about 40% of total income. The average monthly advertising revenue per YouTuber was approximately 3,715,000 KRW.

The so-called 'backdoor advertising,' which has recently been controversial, is also subject to reporting. According to a consumer agency survey last year, only 30% of posts by top domestic influencers on YouTube and Instagram disclosed that they received payment. When YouTubers receive sponsored products from advertisers, they must report taxes based on the objectively formed exchange price under the VAT law, and the same applies when receiving money. According to this report, YouTubers earned more income from indirect advertising such as PPL than from advertising revenue received from Google. Income earned by YouTubers aside from Google ads was about 5,624,000 KRW per month.

Representative Park said, "As seen in the recent backdoor advertising controversy, the YouTuber market is rapidly growing, but there are concerns that many creators remain in the tax blind spot compared to the expansion speed. Not only income from international remittances but also taxation related to sponsorships should not be omitted, and more active efforts to encourage sincere reporting are necessary."

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