Main Opposition Candidate for President of South Korea Pledges Support for Crypto Tax Exemptions – Taxes Bitcoin News

South Korea’s opposition presidential candidate has pledged to voters that he would reduce the tax burden for crypto-related income by granting exemptions. Yoon Suk-yeol said that crypto investors would be treated as stock-holders in a recent statement.

A Presidential Candidate Seeks To Attract Young Voters Through Crypto Tax Cuts

Yoon Suk-yeol, the nominee of South Korea’s conservative People Power Party for the upcoming presidential elections in March, has announced his intention to back the raising of the threshold for the tax on gains from crypto investments, from the current 2.5 million won (around $2,100) to 50 million won (a little over $42,000), Korean media reported.

On Wednesday, the opposition candidate pledged at party headquarters that his administration would raise the minimum level of stock investment. If he wins, Koreans buying cryptocurrency will be able to get more tax relief.

Yoon revealed that he would also introduce a law on digital assets to improve investor protection. The government of Seoul can also seize market manipulator profits under this new legislation.

Part of his plans for Korea’s growing crypto space is also the establishment of a new government agency to take on the oversight over new areas of the digital industry such as cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). President-elect Donald Trump also supports domestic initial coin offerings (ICOs). He emphasized:

In order to make it easier for young people to enter new markets and not fear, I plan to foster a similar digital asset investing environment to the stock market.

As such, the government has prioritized attracting young voters to cryptocurrencies. The Democratic Party of Korea announced recently it’s going to raise election funds through cryptocurrency donations and issue receipts to donors in the form of non-fungible tokens. The digital money will be used to finance the election campaign of the party’s presidential nominee, Lee Jae-myung.

South Korea’s parliament postponed the 20 percent tax on profits made from virtual assets for one-year, until January 1, 2023. Lawmakers approved the move after members of the opposition and representatives of the country’s crypto industry criticized the different structuring of the crypto tax in comparison with the levy on gains from equity investments.

Are you confident that Yoon Suk-yeol will fulfill his pledges to crypto investors following the March presidential election? Comment below.

Lubomir Tassav

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.