South Korea's Crypto Exchanges Formally Request Deferral of Next Year's Crypto Tax—"Can't Even Verify Acquisition Costs"

South Korean virtual asset exchanges plan to submit a formal opinion letter to the government requesting deferral of the virtual asset income tax scheduled for January next year. The core argument is that enforcing taxation without infrastructure to verify acquisition costs and a non-resident withholding tax system in place could shrink domestic trading and drive capital overseas.

According to the "Opinion on Virtual Asset Income Taxation" obtained by Edaily on the 10th, the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA)—representing 27 South Korean virtual asset service providers (VASPs)—has consolidated its position that the taxation timeline should be further postponed and plans to deliver it to the government shortly.

The opinion letter states: "Virtual asset taxation requires a re-examination of the implementation timeline until the relevant infrastructure and information-exchange systems have been substantively verified and preceding regulatory reforms have stabilized." It adds: "Since it is reasonable to tax only after the legal nature of the asset has been defined, consistency between the Digital Asset Framework Act's implementation and the taxation system must first be secured."

A structure that stalls from the very first step: calculating acquisition costs