A public petition in South Korea challenging the country's upcoming cryptocurrency tax has crossed the 50,000 signature threshold and moved to a National Assembly committee for review. According to South Korea's National Assembly petition system, the motion surpassed 50,000 signatures at around 11:23 a.m. local time on Thursday, eight days after submission, automatically sending the proposal to a parliamentary committee for examination. The petition was submitted by an anonymous author who argues that taxing crypto investors while exempting traditional financial investment income creates an unfair imbalance. The petition gathered roughly 30,000 signatures in two days, showing rapid mobilization rather than a slow crawl, with the National Assembly rules requiring referral to the relevant standing committee for deliberation.
South Korea's planned cryptocurrency tax is set to take effect from January 1, 2027, with a 22% levy on annual gains above 2.5 million won, or roughly $1,650. The tax structure includes a 20% income tax and a 2% local income tax under South Korea's Income Tax Act. Earlier this month, Moon Kyung-ho, director of the Ministry of Economy and Finance's income tax division, said during a National Assembly forum that the government intended to proceed with the tax as scheduled. South Korea's National Tax Service has continued preparing implementation guidance with domestic exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax, with detailed compliance guidelines planned for release later in 2026. The government still plans to begin taxing crypto transfers and lending in January 2027, with enforcement infrastructure already being built.
Beyond tax fairness arguments, the petition raised concerns about discriminatory treatment of cryptocurrency compared to traditional assets. The motion cited that stocks can benefit from deductions of up to 50 million won, while crypto gets only 2.5 million won, creating an asymmetry that makes the proposal look less like neutral revenue policy and more like crypto is being singled out. Investors are not objecting to taxation in the abstract but are objecting to this structure that looks discriminatory compared with other assets. The complaint is not only about the headline rate but about the asymmetry in how crypto is treated relative to stocks. Additional criticism focused on market volatility, with the current framework failing to properly account for large price swings that can rapidly alter investor positions.
Political disagreement over the crypto tax has delayed the measure three times already, with lawmakers postponing implementation from 2025 to 2027 after debates over exchange infrastructure, reporting systems, and whether the 2.5 million won threshold was too low compared with other investment products. South Korea's People Power Party has introduced an amendment to abolish the tax altogether, which means the dispute has already entered formal politics. The ruling People Power Party has proposed legislation to abolish the tax before its scheduled rollout, though the Finance Ministry's latest public comments suggested authorities are still preparing for implementation unless lawmakers amend the law beforehand. The tax has been delayed three times due to debates over exchange infrastructure, reporting systems, and whether the 2.5 million won threshold was too low.
Separately, South Korea's regulators have continued advancing new crypto oversight rules ahead of 2027. The National Assembly passed amendments to the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act requiring firms involved in overseas crypto transfers to register with the finance minister. The Financial Services Commission said on May 15 that it plans to release detailed tokenized securities rules in July ahead of amendments to the Capital Markets Act and Electronic Securities Act scheduled to take effect in February 2027. Samsung SDS is also building infrastructure for the Korea Securities Depository's token securities platform as authorities prepare blockchain-based issuance and settlement systems.
