If you enroll in the Youth Future Savings as a small business owner, you must obtain a Small Business Confirmation for all business sites you operate. Existing Youth Leap Account holders must first receive approval to enroll in the Youth Future Savings and then make a special early termination of the Youth Leap Account to switch over.
The Financial Services Commission on the 15th provided details of the enrollment procedures ahead of the Youth Future Savings launch on the 22nd. The Youth Future Savings is a policy finance product available to people ages 19 to 34 who meet certain income and household requirements. During the initial enrollment window, those born from Jan. 1, 1991, to Aug. 7, 2007, may apply. For those who completed military service, up to six years of service time is excluded from the age calculation.
Applications to enroll in the Youth Future Savings will be accepted for two weeks from the 22nd to the 3rd of next month. Enrollment and income screening will then take place from July 6 to 24, and applicants who receive a notice of eligibility may open an account from July 27 to Aug. 7. After this period, opening an account is not possible. Applications can be made via the apps of corporations, NongHyup, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, KB Kookmin, iM, Busan, Gyeongnam, Gwangju, Jeonbuk, Suhyup Bank, KakaoBank, and Korea Post. Toss Bank plans to launch in December.
From the 22nd to the 26th, the first week of enrollment, a five-day rotation will apply based on birth year. From the 29th to July 3, applications will be accepted regardless of birth year. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said the Youth Future Savings is not on a first-come, first-served basis. However, if demand is high and there is concern the budget for government contributions may be exceeded, applicants may be selected in order of lower personal income.
Young people who wish to apply for the preferential type as small business owners will follow a different procedure. Because small business status and sales must be verified, they must directly obtain a Small Business Confirmation in advance from the Small and Medium Business Status Information System. After the confirmation is issued, screening will proceed through system linkage without submitting physical documents separately.
If you operate two or more business sites, you must apply to issue a Small Business Confirmation for all business sites. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said that if you did not apply for the confirmation or if more than one year has passed since the existing confirmation's validity period, it may be difficult to undergo screening for small business owner status. If issuance of the confirmation is not completed before the end of the small business enrollment screening period, sales-based screening will not be possible and screening will proceed based on comprehensive income.
Even if you apply as a small business owner, all business sites operating as of the time of application must meet small business criteria. If you are not currently operating a business site, or if your operating business site falls under an industry excluded from small business policy fund loans as announced by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, you cannot enroll as a small business owner. However, even if you do not meet the small business criteria, you may enroll in the general type if you meet the requirements for general income earners such as comprehensive income.
A procedure has also been established for existing Youth Leap Account holders to switch to the Youth Future Savings. In principle, duplicate enrollment in the Youth Leap Account and the Youth Future Savings is restricted. To ensure the choices of existing account holders, switching from the Youth Leap Account to the Youth Future Savings will be allowed only during this initial enrollment period.
Young people who want to switch must first apply for and undergo screening for the Youth Future Savings and receive a notice of eligibility. They should then open a Youth Future Savings account and apply for a special early termination for the purpose of enrolling in the Youth Future Savings in the app of the bank handling the Youth Leap Account. If the Youth Leap Account is specially terminated early, the government contribution and tax exemption benefits on the existing payments will apply, allowing the refund to be received without loss.
However, a lump-sum payment of the Youth Leap Account termination proceeds into the Youth Future Savings is not supported. If you do not make the special early termination of the Youth Leap Account within the Youth Future Savings account opening period, you also cannot make payments into the Youth Future Savings. In addition, those who kept the Youth Leap Account to the five-year maturity are not eligible to enroll in the Youth Future Savings.
KakaoBank, considering that it is handling a government policy deposit product for the first time, plans to accept only up to 200,000 account applications.
An official at the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said, "The Youth Future Savings webpage is operating, and questions can be answered through information on eligibility and benefits, a pre-qualification check, and a maturity redemption amount calculator."