As the government pushes ahead with its plan to implement crypto taxation starting this coming January, an intense legislative battle is expected during the regular session of the National Assembly in September. The Ministry of Economy and Finance did not include a deferral in its recently announced tax code amendments, officially confirming the implementation date as January 1, 2027. Under this plan, a 22% tax rate, including local taxes, will be applied to crypto investment income exceeding 2.5 million KRW per year.

In response, the ruling People Power Party has been introducing a series of bills demanding a tax deferral and an increase in the deduction limit. The core arguments are to either delay the taxation start date by three years to 2030 or to significantly raise the base deduction limit to 50 million KRW, similar to the stock market. Recently, practical arguments have also been added, suggesting that taxation should be postponed to align with the adoption timeline of the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which is gaining momentum for the deferral logic.

The key variable is the stance of the Democratic Party of Korea, which holds a majority in the National Assembly. Although the Democratic Party pledged to raise the deduction limit during the last general election, its current leadership is sticking to the original plan for implementation next year, making negotiations appear difficult. However, given the precedent where a deferral was decided through a last-minute compromise during past budget negotiations, the industry is watching the upcoming tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties starting from the regular National Assembly subcommittees in September with great tension.