The Ministry of Finance of South Korea has put an end to the speculations and claims that were hovering over the Korean crypto industry in the past few weeks by refuting the report that stated that the regulatory authority had imposed 10% income tax on cryptocurrency investments.
Cryptocurrencies have been in the limelight since the time they first made their presence in the marketspace during the global depression phase, in the form of Bitcoin. From then until now, the digital currencies have faced ups and downs periodically. The recent topic of utmost importance in the crypto arena is “taxation” and its implications on the governments and the crypto investors. The topic of taxation popped up as a strong concern amongst the traders, especially after the tightening of the regulatory norms by the governing authorities worldwide.
With the constant warnings and guidelines being given by the global watchdogs, governments from countries around the globe were compelled to reveal their outlook in the matter loud and clear for the public understanding. Where some countries like Thailand waived taxes on cryptocurrency gains, others like the US imposed a capital gains tax on each and every microtransaction made by the traders. However, South Korea failed to present its perspective in public, and this led to the brewing of speculations in the market.
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Recently, a report published in Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo about the statement given by an unidentified high-ranking official from the Ministry of Finance sparked the news about the imposition of a 10% tax on all crypto trades. The report read: “We have already decided to tax profits from investments in cryptocurrency. The question is only how much time we should give investors and when to start implementing it.”
The report also stated that the government is likely to provide a two-year grace period before the tax code will come into effect.
In response, the Ministry of Finance denied the accuracy of the report by stating that it “is different from the fact.”
The credibility of the article was supported by the reports published earlier in the year that opined Korea’s planning to execute their cryptocurrency tax framework in June 2018.
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Though the report created a lot of chaos in the crypto domain, the recent take of the Ministry of Finance on it has indicated that there are no signs of the Korean government giving an official statement on the crypto tax module anytime in the near future.
