From now on, even if departure is canceled due to reasons such as a flight cancellation after purchasing duty-free goods at the airport, the goods can be brought into the country. Only items within the $800 limit are allowed. Items exceeding the limit will be retrieved by the duty-free shop as before.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance said on the 27th that it plans to promulgate and enforce in March amendments to 18 enforcement rules, including these measures, through the "2025 tax reform follow-up enforcement rule amendment."
Starting Apr. 1, duty-free goods that were not taken out of the country because departure was canceled due to unavoidable reasons such as airline or passenger ship cancellations and natural disasters will be allowed to be brought into the country. Until now, regardless of the reason, if departure was canceled, the duty-free shop operator retrieved the goods.
Only items within the $800 duty-free allowance for travelers' carry-on goods are allowed to be brought into the country. Alcohol is permitted up to 2ℓ (total price $400 or less), cigarettes up to 200 sticks (one carton), and perfume up to 100㎖ (no limit on the number of bottles). If the items exceed this limit, they will be retrieved as before. However, if a person purchased a total of $801 by combining a $799 item and a $2 item, it is possible to get a refund for the $2 item and bring only the $799 item into the country.
Since January this year, up to 15% of webtoon content production expense has begun to be eligible for a tax credit from the producer's income or corporate tax. Original rights fees, script fees, adaptation fees, labor costs for planners, writers, and translators, and costs for webtoon production programs are eligible. However, corporations' business promotion expense and advertising or public relations expense are not eligible.
An official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance said, "Producers who can receive this credit are businesses that actually produce webtoon content," and noted, "Platforms that do only distribution without production are not eligible for the tax credit."
In addition, the government expanded national strategic technologies eligible for the investment tax credit from 61 commercialization facilities in eight fields to 64 facilities. Likewise, the scope of new growth commercialization facilities eligible for the investment tax credit increased from 187 facilities in 14 fields to 193 facilities.
The government also decided to apply the integrated investment tax credit for corporations' "safety facilities" more broadly. Previously, tax credits were granted only for safety-mandated facilities that must be installed under the law, but going forward they will also apply to smart safety control facilities and robots and drones for the purpose of preventing industrial accidents. In addition to employees, tax incentives will be available for safety and health facilities for special-type workers, delivery workers, and construction project contractors.