SEOUL: South Korea has been looking for ways to tax cryptocurrency gains from a long time. In December last year it was said by the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of the country that they’re looking for ways to levy taxes on local Bitcoin markets. Next month a corporate tax of 22% plus 2.2% local income tax was imposed on cryptocurrency exchanges in the country just as it’s imposed on other companies.
The same FNN report also reveals that the crypto task force set up by South Korea has suggested a that can be levied on profits made from cryptocurrency sales. The country has derived these ideas from several other countries, including United States, Japan, UK and Germany where taxation of cryptocurrencies is based on the simple premise that “whenever there is an income, there should be a tax.”
Currently South Korea is pretty close to elections. After elections conclude on June 13, the country will also set up a new full-scale cryptocurrency regulation, according to FNN. However, that may happen only if taxation framework is announced by the end of June, otherwise I feel that they will have to work on that particular framework first.
Positive regulatory and taxation framework in South Korea can give a major boost to global cryptocurrency markets. Therefore, it will be interesting to see which new crypto taxation rules and regulatory guidelines are announced by the country in coming days.