South Korea lawmakers push for another crypto tax delay until 2029

South Korea wrote a crypto income tax into law charging 20% national tax plus a 2% local surtax on annual trading gains above 2.5 million won, with a start date set for Jan. 1, 2027. Lawmakers have now moved that date three times before, and the current proposal to shift it to 2029 would be the fourth postponement. The ruling Democratic Party and the finance ministry are aligned on the delay, a rare instance of government and party speaking with one voice on crypto policy.

Crypto investors in South Korea keep trading gains untaxed through two more filing years, with no withholding or reporting obligations for exchanges to build before 2029. The revised bill adds a three-year loss carryforward, letting traders offset future taxable gains against past losses, a mechanism the earlier 2027 version lacked. None of this is settled: the change still requires a formal amendment to pass the National Assembly before the 2027 start date is legally erased.

Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il's own admission that repeated postponements damage government credibility exposes the real tension: Seoul keeps legislating a tax date it has never been ready to enforce. The Democratic Party's preferred sequence, passing the Digital Asset Basic Act before collecting any levy, treats taxation as a reward for regulatory maturity rather than a fixed obligation. That logic is defensible, but a fourth retreat invites the question of whether 2029 is a deadline or another placeholder.

The finance ministry's Nov. 5 request formally hands the decision to the National Assembly, which must pass an amendment changing the statutory date before the current Jan. 1, 2027 start survives by default. A failure to legislate before year-end would leave the original 2027 tax technically in force, regardless of political consensus. Passage would confirm 2029, alongside the three-year loss carryforward, as the operative framework investors and exchanges plan around.

BitcoinBTC market event: it is read against the reference

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