Korean NTS Initiates Virtual Asset Transaction Tracking System Construction, Paving the Way for Taxation in 2027

BlockBeats News, March 12th - The South Korean National Tax Service (NTS) announced on Thursday that it has started building a tracking system for cryptocurrency investment returns, aiming to align with the government's expansionary fiscal policy and the need to increase fiscal revenue. The system construction comes as the government plans to tax virtual asset profits starting from January next year.

According to the announcement, the National Tax Service has tendered the project for the "Virtual Asset Transaction Analysis Integrated System," which was posted on the e-procurement platform of the Public Procurement Service responsible for government and public institution procurement, with an amount of 3 billion Korean won (about 2.02 million US dollars).

Under the plan, the winning bidder will be selected and contracted within this month, the system will be designed to start in April, go through multiple rounds of testing, enter a trial run phase in November, and is expected to officially launch within the year.

The National Tax Service stated that starting from 2027, the system will begin collecting individual virtual asset transaction data to more effectively detect tax evasion through systematic management and analysis of massive transaction information, including identifying tax evaders' hidden income through tax audits.

It is noteworthy that the National Tax Service plans to introduce artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to analyze and track abnormal transaction types and patterns. At the same time, relevant virtual asset analysis data and lists of suspects will be shared with other government agencies such as the Korea Customs Service, Statistics Korea, and the Bank of Korea.

According to South Korean tax law, starting from January next year, the portion of virtual asset annual income exceeding 2.5 million Korean won will be subject to a 22% comprehensive tax rate (including 20% income tax and 2% local income tax).