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🇰🇷 South Korea /Economy & Trade

Real Estate Tax Reform: A Second Piece of Advice [Jeon Sung-in Column]

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Opinion Sources not specified Context piece
  • A columnist advises President Lee Jae-myung to reconsider real estate tax reforms, arguing that distinguishing between genuine buyers and speculators is impractical and leads to policy failures.
  • The author suggests imposing a uniform tax rate on all property owners, regardless of their intent, to simplify the system and gain public consensus.
  • The column warns that current policies are fueling public dissatisfaction and damaging the administration's popularity, urging a return to fundamental principles.

A columnist urges President Lee Jae-myung to fundamentally rethink real estate tax policies, warning that the current approach of distinguishing between genuine homebuyers and speculators is flawed and detrimental to the administration's popularity.

Do not try to catch real estate speculation with tax reform, do not try to distinguish between genuine buyers and speculators, and impose a proportional tax instead of a progressive tax.

— Columnist Jeon Sung-inThe columnist's core advice regarding real estate tax reform.

In a follow-up to a previous column, the author argues that attempting to penalize speculators while protecting genuine buyers is an "impossible task" that inevitably leads to complex, "nude" policies. These policies, he contends, create unintended victims and fail to gain public trust, ultimately harming the government.

If you could impose disadvantages only on those who engage in ruinous real estate speculation, of course, you should do so.

— Columnist Jeon Sung-inAcknowledging the desire to penalize speculators.

The core of the advice is to shift from a progressive tax system to a proportional one, applying the same tax rate to all property owners. This approach, the columnist suggests, removes the "disadvantage" nuance from taxation, allowing the state to avoid the "hell of details" and the constraints of the principle of legality. Under this system, the argument that one is being unfairly targeted as a "speculator" becomes irrelevant, as the tax is based solely on property ownership.

The state's violence is just violence, and its legitimacy is not recognized.

— Columnist Jeon Sung-inDescribing the outcome of complex and unaccepted policies.

While acknowledging that some may struggle to pay such taxes, the author proposes that tax reductions can be offered as "state benevolence" rather than punitive measures. This, he believes, would be more easily accepted by the public. The columnist concludes by emphasizing the urgency of the situation, stating that President Lee still has time to normalize real estate taxation and preserve his administration.

Real estate holding tax should not be money that 'speculators pay a lot' but money that 'those who own real estate pay in proportion to its value.'

— Columnist Jeon Sung-inProposing a shift in the basis of real estate taxation.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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