Korean Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Calculator

This calculator works out the comprehensive real estate holding tax, 종부세, that homeowners in Korea pay each year. Enter the official assessed value of your home (each one separately if you own several), whether you are a single-home household, how many homes you own, how long you have held and your age, and it shows the basic deduction and fair market value ratio that produce the tax base, the computed tax, the property tax offset, the single-home credits and the rural special tax, ending with the amount actually due.

It looks like a second tax on the same home as property tax, but the structure is different. Property tax is a local tax charged on each home; this is a national tax that adds up the assessed values of every home one person owns and charges only the part above a threshold. The overlapping slice of property tax already paid is credited back, and this calculator includes that adjustment so the result tracks the real bill.

Owners whose assessed value sits near the basic deduction use it each spring when the new assessed values are published. The assessment date is 1 June, so selling or buying before it changes who pays for the year, and the bill arrives in December. It shows what the first year over the line will cost, or how much disappears if you sell.

It also helps when weighing a second home. Two homes cut the basic deduction from ₩1200 million to ₩900 million and remove the holding and age credits entirely, so the same assessed value can produce several times the tax. A single-home owner approaching 60 years of age or 5 years of holding can see how much the credit grows once that year passes.

종합부동산세법 제8조 takes the combined assessed value, subtracts the basic deduction and multiplies by the fair market value ratio to get the tax base. The deduction is ₩900 million in general and ₩1200 million for a single-home household, and the ratio is 60%. The rates in 제9조 run in seven steps from 0.5% on a base up to ₩300 million to 2.7% for owners of two homes or fewer; for three or more, the rates climb faster from the band up to ₩2500 million, reaching 5%. In that band, for instance, the rate is 1.3% for two homes or fewer and 2% for three or more.

The property tax offset comes off the computed tax first. Under 제9조제3항 and 시행령 제4조의3, the offset is the tax base multiplied by the property tax fair market ratio (60% in general, 45% for a single-home household) and the standard property tax rate in 지방세법 제111조 (always the top 0.4% band for this slice), then by the property tax charged home by home divided by the property tax on all homes added together. Because property tax is progressive, several homes charged separately pay less than one combined charge, and the offset shrinks to match. This calculator assumes property tax was charged at the standard rate and rounds the way the National Tax Service's online estimator does. Then the single-home credits apply: 20% for holding 5 years or more up to 50% at 15 years, and 20% at age 60 up to 40% at 70, combined to no more than 80%. Rural special tax of 20% is added to what remains.

One more piece is the burden cap. If property tax and this tax together exceed 150% of the previous year's total, the excess is not charged. Applying it needs last year's figure, so it is left out here, and in a year when assessed values jump the real bill may be lower than this result.

The default on screen is a 65-year-old single-home owner who has held a home assessed at ₩1.3 billion for ten years. Subtracting ₩1200 million leaves ₩100 million, and 60% of that is a base of ₩60 million, taxed at 0.5% for ₩300,000. The property tax offset is 0.4% of ₩27 million (₩60 million times the single-home ratio of 45%), or ₩108,000, which the official estimator's rounding of the ratio at ten decimal places turns into ₩107,999, leaving ₩192,001. The 40% holding credit and 30% age credit together take 70%, or ₩134,400, off, leaving ₩57,601 of tax, and ₩11,520 of rural special tax brings the bill to ₩69,121.

If the same ₩1.3 billion were two homes of ₩800 million and ₩500 million, the deduction falls to ₩900 million, ₩400 million remains, the base is ₩240 million and the computed tax ₩1.2 million. The offset starts at ₩576,000 (₩240 million × 60% × 0.4%) and is scaled by the property tax charged home by home, ₩1.86 million (₩1.29 million plus ₩570,000), over the ₩2.49 million charged on ₩1.3 billion taken together, giving ₩430,265. That leaves ₩769,735, no credits apply, and ₩153,947 of rural special tax makes ₩923,682. Same assessed value, more than thirteen times the tax of the single-home owner.

The most common slip is entering the market price. The tax runs on the official assessed value, which is usually below market, and the figure to use is the one on the government's assessed value portal. The next is adding a couple's jointly owned home together. The tax is charged per person, so each spouse takes their share of the assessed value and each gets a ₩900 million deduction; the single-home credits, though, require an election to treat the couple as one single-home owner.

Owners with a temporary second home, an inherited home or a low-value regional home can elect to be treated as single-home households, and this calculator does not make that determination; if it applies to you, run it as a single home. Finally, the tax falls on whoever owns the home on 1 June. Pay the balance at the end of May and the year's tax is the buyer's, so keep that date in mind when timing a contract.