President Lee Jae-myung on the 10th again stressed ending the grace period for heavier capital gains taxes on multiple-home owners and scaling back tax benefits for rental business operators at a Cabinet meeting.
At the meeting, the president said, "We must become a predictable society. A society where people who make fair efforts receive fair rewards," adding, "Let's start with housing prices."
Koo Yun-cheol, Deputy Prime Minister for the economy and Minister of Economy and Finance, said he would announce an enforcement decree within this week to end the grace period for heavier capital gains taxes on multiple-home owners. Deputy Prime Minister Koo said, "For the three districts in Gangnam and Yongsan, we decided to give three months (for the balance-payment grace period), but for land transaction permit zones, there were public opinions that it should be four months from the date the permit is granted. So we are reviewing a reasonable plan to make this four months now," adding, "For other areas, we will keep it at six months as before. If you pay the balance or register the title within six months after signing the contract, that will suffice."
The president, while receiving Deputy Prime Minister Koo's report, also checked the specific implementation plans several times. When Koo said, "We will amend the enforcement decree this week to make it certain," the president replied in dialect, "Deugaja" (Gyeongsang-do dialect meaning "let's go in"). Koo also said, "There is no 'maybe.'" At a briefing on the 3rd, Koo had used the word "maybe," and the president instructed, "There is no 'maybe.' Do it perfectly."
The president also noted that benefits for rental housing are excessive. The president has recently raised the issue of multiple-home ownership by rental business operators several times via social media (SNS).
The president said, "If you register rental housing and are a multiple-home owner, acquisition tax, comprehensive real estate holding tax, and property tax are reduced, and the heavier capital gains tax for multiple-home owners is also excluded," adding, "Even for apartments with high demand, there is a problem in that there is no set period and the exemption from heavy taxation is unlimited—not for a set period but for 100 years or 1,000 years."
The president repeatedly emphasized, "We must set a limit period."