Seoul City Imposes 4.5247 Trillion KRW in Land and Housing Property Taxes for September... 9.6% Increase from Last Year

7.7 Million Land Parcels Worth 2.8036 Trillion KRW, 3.42 Million Housing Units Worth 1.7211 Trillion KRW... Number of Impositions Up 1.2% from Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 13th that it has finalized 4.19 million cases of property tax for land and housing for September this year, totaling 4.5247 trillion won, and began sending tax bills to taxpayers from September 8.

Property tax is imposed on the owners of taxable properties as of the tax base date, June 1 each year, and is levied in July and September. In July, property tax is imposed on houses, buildings, aircraft, and ships, while in September, it is imposed on land and the remaining houses. Taxpayers who receive property tax bills this September must pay by the deadline of September 30, and if the payment deadline is missed, an additional 3% surcharge will be applied.

The property tax levied this September for land and housing increased by 50,000 cases and 397.5 billion won (9.6%) compared to September last year. The land portion amounts to 771,000 cases totaling 2.8036 trillion won, and the housing portion is 3.423 million cases totaling 1.7211 trillion won. Compared to the previous year, land cases increased by 16,000 (2.1%) and housing cases by 34,000 (1%).

The increase in land and housing property tax is analyzed to be due to the rise in official housing prices, which serve as the tax base for property tax: 14.22% for multi-family housing and 9.95% for single-family housing, and an 11.54% increase in individually assessed land prices. As the official housing prices rose in 2022 compared to the previous year, the Local Tax Act Enforcement Decree was amended to reduce the fair market value ratio from 60% to 45% as a property tax relief policy for single-household single-homeowners. Additionally, since last year, a special tax rate reduction of 0.05 percentage points has been applied to single-household single-homeowners with official prices below 900 million won, effectively easing the tax burden.

Looking at the property tax imposition status by autonomous districts for the 4.5247 trillion won levied this September, Gangnam-gu has the highest amount at 992.7 billion won, followed by Seocho-gu with 523.6 billion won, and Songpa-gu with 412.5 billion won. The districts with the lowest amounts are Dobong-gu with 42.7 billion won, Gangbuk-gu with 43.1 billion won, and Jungnang-gu with 57.2 billion won. The city plans to allocate 1.8188 trillion won of the property tax collected this year as ‘joint property tax’ to be evenly distributed at 72.7 billion won each to the 25 autonomous districts to reduce the tax revenue gap among districts. The ‘joint property tax’ system collects 50% of the property tax as a special city portion and distributes it evenly to the 25 autonomous districts. This system was first introduced in 2008 and has been implemented annually since then.

To pay the property tax levied in September, taxpayers generally need to visit a bank with the tax bill. However, Seoul operates various convenient payment systems that allow taxpayers to pay property tax easily without having to visit a bank, regardless of time and place. The main payment methods include Seoul ETAX, Seoul STAX, dedicated account payments, and bank ATMs.

Meanwhile, the total number of foreigners owning taxable property for property tax in Seoul is 23,942. The property tax bills sent this month included guidance documents in English, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, and Mongolian for foreign taxpayers. Among foreign property taxpayers, English speakers are the largest group with 15,006 people, followed by 8,446 Chinese nationals.

Jung Heon-jae, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Finance Bureau, said, “September is a period with many movements due to the Chuseok holiday, so taxpayers may miss the payment deadline and suffer disadvantages. We urge everyone to make sure to pay within the deadline using ETAX or other means.”

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