Choi Sang-mok: "Now, Incentives Should Be Given Even for Having Just One Child"

Following the government's unprecedented tax exemption benefits for Buyeong's employee childbirth support payments, Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, hinted at additional benefits by stating, "Now, incentives should be given even if a family has only one child."

On the 14th, Deputy Prime Minister Choi said at the '185th Mid-sized Enterprise CEO Luncheon Lecture' held at the Grand Hyatt Seoul in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, "The birth rate for the first child has also declined, but our country's policies provide incentives only when there are two or three or more children."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Deputy Prime Minister Choi emphasized that increasing the labor market participation rate of women and youth is essential to raise the potential growth rate, stating, "The reason the birth rate sharply dropped to 1.24 in 2015 is related to the rise in women's economic activity participation rate to 51.9% during that period."

He added, "Last year, the female labor force participation rate was 54.6%, still about 10 percentage points lower than advanced countries," and said, "However, judging by the increasing pace, women are now much more likely to choose work over children for various reasons when faced with the dilemma of choosing between work and child-rearing."

He also hinted at changes to inheritance and gift taxes. He said, "While communicating with mid-sized business owners, the government will strive to bring about groundbreaking changes within the framework of inheritance and gift tax reforms."

Choi Jin-sik, chairman of the Korea Federation of Mid-sized Enterprises, which hosted the lecture, said, "It is foolish and irresponsible to lose a company's technological capabilities and networks due to excessive inheritance taxes," and emphasized the need to improve the inheritance and gift tax system, which is cited as a management and succession difficulty by mid-sized enterprises.

After the lecture, when a remark was made among attending mid-sized business owners that "tax support is needed for (mid-sized enterprise) inheritance as well," Deputy Prime Minister Choi responded, "(The government) may have lacked concrete examples and explanations to the public regarding inheritance not as wealth transfer but in relation to corporate sustainability."

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