Researching income taxation of cryptocurrency
Authors:   KOREAN SOCIETY OF TAX LAW, Lee Hyung-Seok , Chung Ji-Sun 
Published: August 2023

Looking at the legal status of virtual assets in Korea, the Tax Act defines “virtual asset” as an electronic certificate that has economic value and can be transacted or transferred electronically. The Tax Act defines “virtual asset” as an electronic certificate (including any rights related to it) that has economic value and can be transacted or transferred electronically. ) that can be transacted or transferred electronically as a thing with economic value, and whether it falls under the civil law is divided into positive and negative theories. The Supreme Court The Supreme Court considers it to be property under the Criminal Code, but not currency under the Bank of Korea Act. Gold under the Capital Market Act does not fall under the definition of a financial investment product, but it is necessary to expand the concept to provide legal safeguards for investor protection. to protect investors.
E-finance transactions through blockchain are decentralized, meaning that transaction details are shared and stored among all network participants, and all transactions are notarized and managed by participants through transaction confirmation, so there is no centralized administrator. Under the current income tax law, the taxation structure for virtual asset income is based on direct transactions (P2P) that do not go through virtual asset operators, and since it is difficult to identify international transactions, various types of distribution taxes are imposed for domestic transactions, but we propose to approach international transactions by setting international standards and establishing an information exchange system between countries.
To identify domestic transactions of virtual assets, virtual assets are generally classified as securities or not, and securities-type virtual assets are considered as 'securities' because they meet the 'Howey test', so it is possible to secure transaction details and manage tax revenue through securities transaction taxation. Except for 'securities-type virtual assets', virtual assets are subject to VAT because they are subject to asset exchange transactions, and if they are distributed from Korea to foreign countries, they can be applied at a zero-rated rate as domestic goods. Since the “electronic wallet” of virtual assets refers to the virtual assets themselves, we would like to propose a method of imposing stamp tax on example savings transaction contracts and certificates based on virtual assets, and a method of imposing registration license tax through the virtual asset electronic register by establishing a study managed by the central government. Sanctions for unregistered transactions of virtual assets and a trial period before the introduction of the system will be implemented to encourage positive transactions.
To identify international transactions of virtual assets, it is necessary to establish a virtual asset transaction information exchange system between countries and agree on standards for international taxation targets and methods to exercise taxation rights in an information cooperation council.