[사설] The government raises the house price and pays taxes to the people.

The government raised the official price of apartments, coalitions, multi-family, and other apartment houses nationwide this year by an average of 19.08% from last year. This is more than three times higher than last year’s 5.98% increase. It is the largest increase in 14 years since 2007, up 22.7%.

The published price becomes the standard for imposing property tax and comprehensive real estate tax, and is used in 60 fields, including health insurance premiums and basic pension calculations. The sharp rise in publicly announced prices has increased the burden on the public, including increased taxes and construction fees. According to the ownership tax simulation of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the publicly announced price of an apartment from 960 million won last year will rise to 1.2 billion won this year. Accordingly, the ownership tax will increase by 1.32,000 won (43.1%) from 3023,000 won to 4325,000 won. The number of apartments that exceed the official price of 900 million won, which is subject to the tax on a per household basis, is expected to increase by nearly 70% compared to last year. In addition, health insurance premiums for 1.27 million households with local health insurance subscribers will also increase.

Due to the failure of the Moon Jae-in administration’s real estate policy, the median price of apartments in Seoul rose more than 50% for the Moon administration. The quoted price, which is the standard for taxation, is also rising sharply. It is a situation in which the people are on their shoulders to tackle the surge in house prices caused by the government’s real estate policy mistakes. Last year’s tax revenue was 3.6 trillion won, an increase of 34.8% from 2019, two times from 2018, and three times from 2016. It is the result of wielding the tax policy as a pre-sale report, saying that it would prevent the increase in house prices. In addition, the government, which has fallen into welfare populism, is raising housing-related taxes to fill the barns in the country where it has been punctured.

Real estate-related taxes in Korea account for 4.05% of gross domestic product (GDP), the third largest among OECD countries. Senior retirees who own a house and have no income other than pensions criticize the taxation as “property robbery”. 1 For homeowners, the property tax rate should be lowered so that they do not suffer from taxes. If the ownership tax is raised to stabilize the house price, the transaction tax should be lowered to provide an escape. It is also inevitable to adjust the speed of the plan to raise the quoted price to 90% of the market price by 2030.