Property Tax to Remain Intact
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo reaffirmed Tuesday that the government's policy on heavier property taxes will remain unchanged.
``We don't have any plan to touch the property tax law,'' the prime minister said at a press meeting in Seoul to mark his 30 days in office. ``The law will not be revised at least during the remaining tenure of the Participatory Government.''
He stressed the tax policy will create results in the near future.
The property tax is aimed at housing units worth 600 million won ($635,000) or more and land valued at 300 million won or more with the government sharply increasing the assessment of prices for houses and land.
Owners of high-priced homes in affluent areas have denounced the policy as ``left-leaning.'' Critics say high tax will instead produce ``innocent victims'' such as those who own a house, particularly the middle-class.
As many as 505,000 households are expected to see their property tax rise more than three fold this year. The figure accounts for about 2.1 percent of the country's households and those in Seoul and vicinity account for 94 percent of the total subject to the inclusive taxes, experts said.
It is estimated that these 2 percent of households hold more than 30 percent of all the wealth in the country.