Stock Trading Tops 1,700 Tril. Won in Jan.-May Period

In the first five months of this year, South Korean investors’ stock trading value reached over 1,700 trillion won and the South Korean government’s securities transaction tax revenue increased a lot to 4.3 trillion won or so, which amounts to about two-thirds of the average for the past six years.

Specifically, the value is divided into 907.77 trillion won in KOSPI and 820.08 trillion won in KOSDAQ. The total is equivalent to 75.5 percent of last year’s total. For reference, the annual value amounted to 2,799 trillion won in 2018 and the average for the past five years is 2,285 trillion won.

The government’s securities transaction tax revenue for the five months is estimated at 2,957.9 billion won plus 1,361.6 billion won in special tax for rural development. Last year, the revenue totaled approximately 6.2 trillion won. In 2018, it added up to 8,445 billion won.


This year’s revenue is estimated to reach an all-time high and there is likely to be more demand for lower taxes on investors although the government cut the securities transaction tax by 0.05 percentage point in June 2019. Before the recent general elections, both the ruling and opposition parties promised another cut. The current stance of the ruling party and the government is that stock transfer taxes need to be increased for any additional cut.

According to industry sources, the government is likely to come up with detailed measures soon. Late this year, the threshold of stock transfer tax imposition applied to major shareholders will be adjusted from one billion won to 0.3 billion won per stock item.

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