South Korea’s People Power Party Seeks Talks With Democrats to Delay Crypto Tax

South Korea’s People Power Party plans to hold talks with the Democratic Party on delaying taxation of virtual assets, or cryptocurrencies, scheduled to take effect in January 2027.

Digital Asset reported on October 21 that Park Soo-young, deputy policy committee chair of the People Power Party, made the remarks to reporters after a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Hall in Seoul’s Yeouido district.

He was cautious about the chances of a bipartisan agreement. Although a bill to postpone the tax has also been proposed within the Democratic Party, the party has not yet adopted an official position. Park said it was still difficult to predict what conclusion would emerge from the bill review scheduled for November.

The People Power Party cited the state of preparedness of the tax system and fairness relative to other financial assets as the main issues. It argues that pushing ahead with taxation on crypto income after scrapping the financial investment income tax would be inequitable. The party also said a delay was needed because tax standards, revenue estimates and exchange systems related to the levy were not yet fully in place.

Park held the press conference with six young crypto investors who called for a postponement. He said the Democratic Party should also take their concerns into account and discuss securing additional time to refine the system, rather than enforcing the tax before institutional preparations are complete.

Cho Sang-hyuk, attending as a representative of the young investors, said they were not opposing taxation itself. He said institutional improvements should come first to ensure fair tax payments. Cho called for the start of the tax to be delayed by at least two years so the framework could be strengthened, including loss carryforwards, profit-and-loss offsetting and basic deductions.

With lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties having introduced bills to defer the crypto tax, the preparedness of the tax infrastructure and fairness among investors are set to be major issues in the upcoming legislative review process.