Retail investors to hold rally to protest stock trading income tax

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By Lee Kyung-min

• Published May 27, 2024 4:05 PM KST
• Updated May 28, 2024 2:54 PM KST

A group of retail investors will hold a candlelit vigil, Thursday, to protest the planned enforcement of a capital gains tax on stock trading income, according to the rally organizer Korea Stockholders Alliance (KSA), Monday.

The collective move coincides with the formation of the 22nd National Assembly.

Previous legislative discussions ended up in vain, eclipsed almost entirely by a deadlocked standing committee governing the financial regulations. The National Assembly's National Policy Committee has been essentially non-performing since the crushing defeat of the ruling People Power Party in the April 10 general elections.

“We will hold a candlelit rally in front of the headquarters of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday, at 5 p.m.,” KSA leader Jung Eui-jung said.

Rival parties would have to reach a bipartisan agreement to scrap the tax by no later than August, he added, a pivotal step to preventing an immense downward spiral of the stock market.

“Retail investors will bear the full brunt of the envisioned tax, a critical flaw in the thinking of the opposition-led legislators,” he said.

The main opposition must identify, in his view, which of Korea’s global peers with similar financial market growth profiles have put in place such a tax.

“The DPK must make it the party's stance that Korea’s stock market will not experience similar turmoil, as previously seen in other countries.”

Starting next year, at least a 20 percent tax will be in store on incomes from trading stocks, funds, bonds and financial derivatives exceeding 50 million won ($36,630).

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to scrap the tax during a May 9 press conference.

“The 14 million retail investors will incur a major loss, crippled by a massive capital outflow of great magnitude,” he said.

The DPK maintains the scrapping of the tax will exacerbate income inequality, dubbing it a “tax cut for the rich.”