South Korea’s new finance minister, Hongan Kim, responded to a question from a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and said that the relevant department plans to levy a cryptocurrency tax.
Hongan Kim said: "We are working through a working group composed of relevant government departments and private experts to review foreign tax cases and formulate taxation plans to properly tax virtual currency. Through detailed market inspections, specific tax plans are determined. feasible."
As Hongan Kim’s remarks suggest, the plan to levy a cryptocurrency tax is still in its infancy. Therefore, it is hard to imagine what such a tax would actually look like.
He also hinted that the Korean authorities will consider the ICO tax. It is more difficult to determine the final situation, as he does not seem to be sure what form the ICO tax will take.
“Considering market conditions, international trends and customer protection issues, it is necessary to be cautious about ICO,” he said. “We will study the direction of the ICO, the findings of the Financial Supervisory Authority and expert opinions.”
Ironically, despite the anarchic origins of Bitcoin, taxing cryptocurrencies has become a real possibility in the past few months.
Recently, lawmakers in Ohio, USA, said that people can pay taxes in bitcoin.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Spanish authorities in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula also stated that they would implement a cryptocurrency tax by focusing on the capital gains of holding cryptocurrencies.
A survey conducted by the Madrid regulator found that the Spanish government plans to tax 15,000 individuals holding cryptocurrencies in the near future.