Tax Credit for Good Landlords Now Includes Closed Small Business Owners

260 Million KRW Support for Korean Restaurants Participating in 'Korea Gourmet Week'

On the 19th, a rental notice was posted at a store within the fashion town shopping area in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, which is experiencing a recession due to the prolonged impact of COVID-19. Due to the effects of COVID-19, Dongdaemun shopping malls, symbolized by fashion accessories, are also becoming vacant. According to the Shopping Mall Information Research Institute, the vacancy rate of medium to large shopping malls in the Dongdaemun commercial district was 10.8% in the second quarter of last year. The vacancy rate in the Dongdaemun commercial district has been continuously rising since the second quarter. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] The government will include small business owners who have closed their businesses but still have remaining lease periods in the scope of the Good Landlord Tax Credit support. The rent reduction and payment deferral measures for national and public property as well as public institution-owned property, which were scheduled to end at the end of June, will be extended until the end of the year.

On the 19th, the government decided to expand various support measures considering the slow recovery of the economic sentiment among small business owners and SMEs. First, rent reductions for small business owners will be promoted.

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, stated at the Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on the 18th, "Small business owners who have closed their businesses but still have remaining lease periods will be included in the Good Landlord Tax Credit," and added, "The rent reduction and payment deferral measures for national and public property and public institution-owned property, which were scheduled to end this month, will be extended until the end of the year."

Additionally, to support the tourism and dining sectors severely impacted by COVID-19, 2.6 million KRW will be provided to Korean restaurants participating in Korea Gourmet Week.

Furthermore, the government plans to implement payment deferrals for employment and industrial accident insurance premiums for small-scale workplaces, as well as electricity and city gas bills for small business owners from July to September. For those with reduced income, exemption from National Pension premiums for July to September will also be applied. Regarding employment insurance premiums, workplaces with fewer than 30 employees qualify as small-scale workplaces; for industrial accident insurance premiums, small-scale workplaces include those with fewer than 30 employees, one-person self-employed individuals, and special employment types.

Meanwhile, the government intends to proceed with normalization measures after assessing the macroeconomic trends.

In this regard, Lee Ok-won, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said, "The most important principle in normalization is orderly normalization above all," and added, "We will consider normalization plans taking into account the overall macroeconomic situation and minimizing shocks to our economy."

He also stated, "The targets and nature of the support measures differ," and added, "We will consider whether the initial objectives of the measures have been achieved and whether shocks persist."

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