Korea plans to begin taxing virtual assets in January 2027, but the government has yet to establish the infrastructure or release detailed guidelines, industry officials said Tuesday.
That leaves the country lagging behind regional peers, which are rapidly integrating digital assets into mainstream regulatory frameworks.
Japan offers the most recent example. Its Financial Services Agency is pushing to classify 105 cryptocurrencies traded on domestic exchanges as financial products, Asahi Shimbun reported on Monday. Profits from these assets are expected to be taxed at roughly 20 percent — the same rate applied to stocks and investment funds.
Korea has adopted a similar framework, planning to tax virtual asset gains as other income at a 22 percent separate rate for individuals earning over 2.5 million won ($1,705) annually from trading.
Although the law passed in 2020, implementation has been delayed three times — most recently from 2025 to 2027 — due to investor opposition and technical hurdles.
“Postponing taxation three times is an unprecedented move rarely seen among major global economies,” said Kim Kab-lae, a senior research fellow at the Korea Capital Market Institute.
Other economies, such as the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia, have already implemented crypto taxation. In Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, regulators have created clarity by explicitly exempting crypto from taxation.
Officials say a fully developed tax framework — a key reason for the delays — remains unaddressed, even 11 months after the last deferral.
The government has taken few concrete steps to close the tax gap. It has neither launched a public-private task force to assess the system, nor included virtual asset tax infrastructure in the national tax administration plan, Kim said.
In addition, it has yet to clarify how different types of virtual asset income, including airdrops, staking, hard forks, lending and mining, will be taxed. Systems for data collection and taxpayer identification also remain underdeveloped.
As a result, the 2025 tax bill, submitted in September, mirrors the deferred 2024 framework with no meaningful revisions.
“A fourth deferral can no longer be ruled out,” Kim said. “If public sentiment begins to support another delay, it could trigger tax resistance strong enough to jeopardize future implementation.”
Meanwhile, the country’s crypto sector has become a major force in retail investing. According to the Financial Services Commission, as of the first half of 2025, the number of verified users on virtual asset exchanges eligible to trade had reached 10.77 million — nearly one-fifth of the nation’s population.
“Unresolved issues could spark legal challenges once taxation begins,” said Park Joo-cheol, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Public Finance. “The deferral period should be used to clarify key definitions and prepare for international data-sharing challenges.”
