Lee Jae-myung "Will Expand Monthly Rent Deduction... Deduction for Rent from 5 Years Ago as Well"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea's presidential candidate, announced on the 2nd, "We will introduce a carryover deduction that allows deductions for monthly rent payments up to 5 years prior."

On the same day, Lee posted on Facebook under the title "Infinite Responsibility Real Estate Pledge 4," announcing the expansion of the monthly rent deduction policy.

He emphasized, "Is monthly rent an elephant, but the deduction just a tiny tail? We will increase the monthly rent deduction to reduce the (housing) burden," adding, "Although the proportion of monthly rent is gradually increasing due to changes in housing types, young people with fewer assets and lower incomes cannot keep up with high monthly rents. We will significantly expand support for citizens living in monthly rental housing." This is the fourth real estate tax pledge following ▲ a full review of the publicly announced price system ▲ partial easing of comprehensive real estate tax ▲ easing of acquisition tax for actual buyers.

Lee explained, "If your income is currently low and you cannot meet the deduction limit, you will be able to carry over and apply for deductions up to 5 years later, similar to donation deductions," and "Also, we will raise the deduction rate from 10-12% of the annual monthly rent amount to around 15-17%, so that you can get back at least two months' worth of rent."

He also promised, "We will relax the housing price criteria for deduction eligibility so that more tenants can benefit from the monthly rent deduction," and "We will expand the application from houses with a standard market price of 300 million KRW or less to those up to 500 million KRW."

Lee pointed out, "The government is implementing monthly rent deductions to ease housing cost burdens, but only about 12% of the 4 million monthly rent households receive deduction benefits," adding, "The deduction amount is only about one month's rent, and the tax refund is small, so many do not even apply for the tax credit, resulting in low effectiveness."

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