National Assembly Passes Amendments to Ease Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Burden for Temporary Two-Homeowners and Allow Voluntary OTT Content Rating Classification

Processed 14 Bills Including Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act Amendment
Maintaining Single-Home Status for Those Unavoidably Becoming Two-Home Owners Due to Moving or Inheritance

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 7th, the amendment to the 'Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act' aimed at alleviating the comprehensive real estate tax (Comprehensive Real Estate Tax, 종부세) burden for temporary two-homeowners and low-income, elderly individuals with insufficient cash-generating ability passed the National Assembly plenary session. Along with this, a total of 14 agenda items, including the amendment to the 'Act on the Promotion of Movies and Videos' allowing OTT operators to classify video ratings independently, were approved on the same day.

At the plenary session held in the afternoon, the National Assembly passed the amendment to the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act with 178 votes in favor, 23 against, and 44 abstentions out of 245 members present.

The passed amendment to the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Act includes provisions to ease the tax burden for one-household-one-homeowners who temporarily own two homes, inherited homes, or low-priced homes in provincial areas, and to permit tax payment deferral for low-income and elderly individuals lacking cash liquidity.

Under the current law, if only one member of a household owns one home as of the tax base date, they are considered a 'one-household-one-homeowner' and are granted benefits by applying the basic deduction amount, known as the 'Comprehensive Real Estate Tax non-taxation threshold,' differently from multi-homeowners.

However, it was pointed out that among one-homeowners, those who are temporary two-homeowners, inherited home acquirers, or owners of low-priced provincial homes are excluded from the one-homeowner category despite having no speculative intent, resulting in a sharp increase in tax burden.

As of this year, the basic deduction amount is 1.1 billion KRW for one-homeowners and 600 million KRW for multi-homeowners. The amendment passed on this day includes in the scope of one-homeowners: ▲ those who acquired a new home for moving but temporarily became two-homeowners because they could not immediately sell the existing home (temporary two-homeowners), ▲ those who became two-homeowners by acquiring a home through inheritance (inherited home acquirers), and ▲ those who own a low-priced provincial home along with their existing home, becoming two-homeowners (owners of low-priced provincial homes), allowing them to receive the same benefits as one-homeowners.

Additionally, to prevent elderly and long-term one-homeowners with insufficient cash liquidity from having to sell their homes due to tax burdens, a 'payment deferral system' was newly established. Among one-homeowners, those aged 60 or older or who have held the home for more than five years can apply for a deferral of comprehensive real estate tax payment on the home, and with approval from the competent tax office chief, payment deferral is possible until the home is gifted or inherited.

This amended law is expected to be applied starting from the comprehensive real estate tax notices issued at the end of November this year.

At the plenary session on the same day, the amendment to the 'Act on the Promotion of Movies and Videos' allowing Internet Video Streaming Service (OTT) operators to classify video ratings independently was also approved.

With the rapid increase of OTT videos such as Netflix and TVING, there have been concerns about delays in rating classification processing by the 'Video Rating Board,' and limitations in having the board classify all videos distributed through internet content services.

The amended law allows OTT operators designated as self-rating classification operators by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to classify and distribute video ratings independently, except for restricted viewing ratings. This is expected to complement delays in the board's rating classification process and enable more timely online video distribution.

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