부동산 Owners of Large Amounts of Real Estate May Face New Taxation

[말과의미]

Owners of Large Amounts of Real Estate May Face New Taxation



By Nho Joon-hun
Staff Reporter
The government is planning to introduce a national tax on owners of large amounts of real estate by as early as 2006 as another measure to stabilize the market.

But opposition lawmakers immediately played down the effect it will have on real estate speculation and some experts raised the possibility that it could be unconstitutional to tax people differently.

According to officials at the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs yesterday, the government has begun work to revise the current provincial laws covering real estate taxes and impose a national tax on about 85,000 individuals who paid more than 1 million won in integrated land taxes last year.

They said one portion of the revision will be the imposition of an incremental tax on owners of expensive properties. If this is implemented, owners of housing units in the affluent district of Kangnam will see their property tax rise 60-70 percent, with those in northern Seoul, satellite cities and the provinces will benefit by paying 20-30 percent less.

At the same time, the national tax will be introduced on top of the integrated land tax and the property tax, thus discouraging individuals from owning excessive amounts of real estate, a trend which has been pushing up apartment and other housing prices.

Prior to launching the new tax, most likely in 2006, the government will gradually increase the current publicly-posted land prices, which are usually considerably lower than the market value.

``We are seeking to raise the publicly-posted prices from the current 36 percent to 50 percent of the actual value to make property and land taxes more realistic,’’ the official said.

Owing to the fact that the publicly-posted prices, based on which taxes are imposed, are so low, property taxes on some luxury apartments in southern Seoul are even lower than the automobile tax for a compact car.

``With the adjustment in publicly-posted real estate prices and the imposition of the new national tax, the burden on people who own a lot of land and properties will increase considerably after 2006,’’ the ministry official added.

The increase in tax revenue for the provincial cities will be used to improve welfare and education facilities in the respective regions, he added.



jakenho@koreatimes.co.kr


09-01-2003 18:03


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