South Korea has delayed its planned cryptocurrency gains tax for the fourth time, pushing the start date back to 2029 from January 2027. The latest postponement gives the government another two years to prepare the tax system, while crypto investors will have to wait longer before the proposed levy takes effect.
Under the plan, investors would pay a 22% tax, including local income tax, on annual crypto gains exceeding 2.5 million won.
Officials said the government needed more time to prepare for international tax information sharing, revise how taxable profits are calculated, and align the rules with the country’s new digital asset legislation. But the repeated delays have also raised questions about the government’s willingness to push ahead with the tax amid growing opposition, particularly among younger South Koreans, who make up a large part of the country’s crypto investor base.
According to a local news blog, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il announced the latest postponement at an emergency briefing in Seoul on November 5. A day earlier, Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok had called for another delay in the tax.
South Korea cites international reporting and tax reforms behind the delay
One reason for the latest delay is that South Korea will not begin exchanging crypto tax information with the United States until 2029 under the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). Officials argue that introducing the tax before then could put local investors and exchanges at a disadvantage compared with overseas markets.
The government also wants to align the tax rules with upcoming digital asset legislation and make changes to how investors can report losses. One proposal would allow crypto investors to carry losses forward for three years, using them to offset profits made during that period.
The officials plan to submit the amendments during parliament’s 2027 regular session and release detailed crypto tax guidelines in the first half of 2028.
The repeated delays are of major concern because the tax’s original start date was January 2022. The government later postponed it to 2023, 2025, and then 2027. As of May, a Finance Ministry official said the government was still preparing for the 2027 rollout.
Pressure for another postponement had been building among local crypto businesses. Finance officials recently met representatives of major exchanges, who raised concerns about unclear tax rules for different types of transactions and the time needed to build the systems required to implement them.
