National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Gwang-hyeon said on the 25th that the minimum threshold for the spousal inheritance deduction should be raised.
At a comprehensive policy inquiry of the Special Committee on Budget & Accounts that day, when People Power Party lawmaker Song Eon-seok asked for his view on the cap for the spousal inheritance deduction, Lim, the commissioner, answered, "I think the need for improvement is urgent."
Lim said, "As I understand it, the spousal deduction has remained at 500 million won for about 27 to 28 years."
In 2024, when he was a lawmaker with the Democratic Party of Korea, Lim himself introduced a bill to raise the minimum threshold for the spousal inheritance deduction to 1 billion won to ease the tax burden on the middle class.
Lee Kwang-jae, the Budget and Accounts Committee chair from the Democratic Party, said, "As national income increases, the old rules—this and others—are likely affected," adding, "It seems necessary to examine comprehensively whether general tax laws and tax bases, among other areas, align with the times."
In response, Lim, the commissioner, said, "As prices have risen, the tax burden on the middle class has increased, so those aspects need to be normalized."
However, Vice Minister Heo Jang of the Ministry of Finance and Economy said regarding government-level discussions on amending the law, "As far as I know, there is no particular additional review yet."