Gyeonggi Province Imposes 828.4 Billion Won in Property Tax

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 15th that it has imposed 828.4 billion won in regular property tax for this year, a 26.1% (171.7 billion won) increase from last year.

By city and county, Yongin accounted for 98.3 billion won, Seongnam 78.8 billion won, Goyang 67.7 billion won, and Suwon 57.1 billion won. Yeoncheon had the lowest at 2.1 billion won, followed by Dongducheon City at 5.1 billion won.

This year, property taxes increased across all cities and counties in the province due to rises in announced land prices and residential property announced prices. Even the 17 cities and counties that applied reduced flexible tax rates on residential properties saw property tax increases.

The rate of property tax increases by city and county reached the provincial average of 26.1%, with three cities including Hanam, Paju, and Yangju seeing increases of 40% or more, 11 cities and counties including Yongin, Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, Gwangju, and Osan seeing increases of 30% or more, and eight counties including Seongnam, Goyang, Namyangju, and Gimpo seeing increases of 20% or more.

The increase in property tax payments is attributed to apartment prices rising an average of 21.2%, announced land prices rising an average of 22.6%, and the application ratio of the tax base increasing 5 percentage points compared to last year.

However, to ease the increased tax burden on modest homes, a tax burden ceiling system was applied to ensure that residential properties with announced prices of 600 million won or less do not exceed a maximum 10% increase. As a result, a total of 2.67 million households now bear a tax burden of 213.9 billion won, a decrease of 32.6 billion won from the initial amount.

A provincial official stated, "Due to the policy easing the tax burden on modest homes, most owners of properties valued at 600 million won or less saw their taxes reduced compared to the July assessment; however, general real estate owners experienced a significant increase in tax burden due to substantial rises in announced land prices."

Property tax is a pure local tax assessed twice annually in July and September. In July, half of residential property tax is assessed along with taxes on buildings and ships, while in September, the remaining half of residential property tax and land tax are assessed respectively.

Since the 30th falls on a Saturday, the province explained that taxpayers can pay their taxes through financial institutions such as Nonghyup, Korea Post, banks, and the internet from the 16th through next month's 2nd.

Previously, the province imposed 236.5 billion won in regular property tax for July, a 12.5% (26.3 billion won) increase from the previous year.