Korean Crypto Tax Calculator

From 1 January 2027, Korea taxes the money residents make by selling or lending virtual assets such as Bitcoin. Enter what you sold during the year, what you paid, your fees and anything you earned by lending, and this calculator shows your taxable crypto income, what is left after the ₩2.5M deduction, and the income tax and local income tax you owe. The tax is not yet in force, so nothing sold up to the end of 2026 is taxed.

The key is the cost. Tax is charged not on the whole sale price but on the sale price less what you paid and your fees. For crypto you already held before 2027, however, the cost is the greater of what you actually paid and the market price on 31 December 2026. In other words, the law does not tax gains made before it took effect. That is why the calculator asks for your crypto in two groups, depending on when you bought it.

It is first for people who have held crypto for a long time and plan to sell after 2027 begins. Enter the 31 December 2026 market price and you can see at once how much tax disappears when that price is higher than what you paid. It turns the advice to record the year-end price into a number.

It is also for anyone who bought or received crypto outside an exchange. If you cannot prove the cost of crypto bought from 2027, only 50% of the sale proceeds is allowed as expenses and fees are not deducted at all. Compare the tax with and without proof and you can see what downloading your trade history now is worth in won.

Income from transferring or lending virtual assets is "other income" under 소득세법 제21조제1항제27호. Deductible expenses are the actual acquisition cost plus incidental costs of buying, selling or lending (제37조제1항제3호). For assets held before 2027, the acquisition cost is the greater of the 31 December 2026 market price and the actual cost (제37조제5항). That market price is the average price published at 00:00 on 1 January 2027 by exchanges designated by the National Tax Service (시행령 제88조제2항). For assets acquired from 2027 outside an exchange, where books or records cannot show the actual cost, 50% of the sale proceeds is the expense and incidental costs are not added (제37조제6항, 시행령 제88조제4항·제5항).

The calculation runs like this. Add up everything you sold and everything you earned by lending during the year, subtract all the expenses, and you have a single crypto income figure (제21조제3항). If it is ₩2.5M or less, there is no tax (제84조제3호). Above that, take ₩2.5M off and multiply by 20% for income tax (제64조의3제2항), then multiply the same amount by 2% for local income tax (지방세법 제93조제18항). It is taxed separately from your other income, so the rate is 22% whatever your salary. The return is filed in the May income tax period of the following year, so the first filing for 2027 income falls in May 2028.

The default screen shows a coin bought in 2020 for ₩10M, worth ₩50M on 31 December 2026, and sold in 2027 for ₩60M. The cost is the greater of ₩10M and ₩50M, so ₩50M, and the income is ₩10M. Take off ₩2.5M, charge 22% on the ₩7.5M left, and the tax is ₩1.65M, or 16.5% of the income. Set the market price to 0 and the cost falls back to ₩10M: income becomes ₩50M and the tax jumps to ₩10.45M. Same sale, a difference of ₩8.8M.

If you sold crypto bought from 2027 for ₩60M and cannot prove what you paid, the expense is 50% of the proceeds, ₩30M. Income of ₩30M less ₩2.5M, taxed at 22%, gives ₩6.05M. Small amounts are not taxed: yearly income of exactly ₩2.5M means no tax, and income of ₩3M means 22% on only ₩500,000, which is ₩110,000. If you lost ₩20M on one coin and made ₩30M on another in the same year, the two are added together and your income is ₩10M.

First, thinking crypto sold in 2026 is taxed. The law applies only to sales and lending from 1 January 2027. The start date has been pushed back 3 times (2022 → 2023 → 2025 → 2027) and could be delayed again if the National Assembly amends the law. Second, believing that once income passes ₩2.5M the whole amount is taxed at 22%. The rate applies only to what is left after the deduction.

Third, mistaking sale proceeds for income. If you sold ₩10M of crypto that cost ₩9M, your income is ₩1M and there is no tax. Fourth, assuming the no-proof 50% rule applies to old holdings. It applies only to crypto bought from 2027; for anything held before that, the 31 December 2026 market price becomes the cost. Fifth, thinking a foreign exchange means nothing to report because no data reaches the tax office. The duty to file is the same and you must keep your own records. And if you bought the same coin several times, the cost is averaged across all purchases (시행령 제88조제1항), so you cannot claim to have sold only the most expensive units.