Some days ago, there were reports saying that the South Korean governments wanted to re-categorize cryptocurrency trading profits to ‘other income,’ allowing users to pay just 10% tax. At the moment, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance refuted the rumours.
South Korea Tax on Cryptocurrencies
Several countries around the world have started to impose taxes on capital gains and cryptocurrency profits. And South Korea is one of these nations. The Asian country has been taxing virtual currency gains with a 24.2 percent income tax.
About this topic, there should be a statement soon and how the government is planning to tax Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the short term.
The local news outlet, Chosun, said that a high-ranking government official said that they were thinking on how much time they should give investors and when to start implementing it.
At the same time, the government may soon start allowing some kind of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), which have been banned from operating in the country since the last year.
A government official commented on the matter:
“The financial authorities have been talking to the country’s tax agency, justice ministry, and other relevant government offices about a plan to allow ICOs in Korean when certain conditions are met.”
There have been speculations about a possibility to shut down cryptocurrency trading activities in the country with the intention to expel all virtual currency exchanges from the Korean territory.
But, as mentioned before, there are other reports that let us think that some ICOs may be legalized and regulated by the government.
“The bill is aimed at legalizing ICOs under the government’s supervision. The primary goal [of the legislation] is heling remove uncertainties facing blockchain related businesses,” said Hong Eui-rak, an important member of the Democratic party.
South Korea has decided to take important measures to regulate the country back in 2017. During the last year, an important number of scams appeared and some exchanges have been hacked. With these regulations, South Korea wants to have control on the activities that take place in the market.
