[Executive Summary]
- In preparation for presidential election which will be held on March 9th, the presidential candidates are presenting their pledges on virtual asset industry. The major pledges include allowing domestic ICOs and raising the tax base of virtual asset investment profit from current 2.5 million Won to 50 million Won, equal to the stock tax base.
Presidential Election Pledge on Virtual Assets Industry, ICO, STO and Taxation on Capital Gains from Trading Virtual Assets
The Presidential candidates are announcing their pledges on virtual assets industry for the 20th presidential election scheduled on March 9th.
Match between Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Minjoo Party and Yoon Seok-youl of the conservative opposition People Power Party is at the center of attention.
While Lee announced suggestions including 1) legislation of the act on the protection of virtual asset users, and resolving the legislative voidness and 2) the examination of STO(Stock Token Offering). Proposals suggested by Yoon include 1) legislating framework act for digital assets, 2) establishing the digital industry promotion agency mainly oriented towards policies related to virtual assets, and 3) expanding the insurance policy to prevent hacking or system errors etc. Two candidates both agreed to 1) permit ICO(Initial Coin Offering) and to raise the tax base on annual capital gains to 50 million KRW or more from trading virtual assets, same as capital gain from stock investments, from the current 2.5 million or more. Especially, lawmaker Yoon Hu-duck, who is the head of the policy division of the Lee’s campaign headquarters, proposed an amended income tax bill that raised the tax base on annual capital gains of more than 50 million KRW or more.
The political authorities are putting in the effort to earn votes from the people who have deep understanding of and can utilized blockchain technologies. Lee have recently held a meeting with the representatives of the KRW exchanges, and on February 9th, he also suggested to provide NFTs of Lee’s Fund who contribute to his fund-raising.
