Korean Property Tax Calculator

Property tax is a local tax paid every year simply for owning a home. Unlike capital gains tax, paid once on sale, it recurs for as long as you hold the property, so a modest annual figure adds up to a substantial sum over ten years. This calculator derives the tax base from the official assessed price and the fair market value ratio, computes the property tax itself plus local education tax, and shows the gap between the special rate for one-household-one-home owners and the standard rate, both per year and cumulatively.

The special rate exists to ease the holding cost for people who own the one home they live in. It applies only to a single household's only home with an assessed price of ₩0.9 billion or less, and uses a rate table that sits below the standard rate in every band. It carries an expiry, though: it applies only to tax liabilities arising by 28 December 2026, so whether it continues beyond that has to be checked separately.

Homeowners who want to anticipate the property tax bills that arrive in July and September. You can see how much a rise in the assessed price adds, and how much the special rate is worth, before signing a contract or moving. Because the assessment date is 1 June and whoever owns the home on that day pays that year's tax, it also informs the timing of a purchase or sale.

It is especially useful to owners whose assessed price is close to ₩0.9 billion, because above that line the special rate disappears entirely and the whole tax, not just the excess, is computed at the standard rate. Owners of two or more homes are outside the special rate from the start, and can compare what selling down to one would save.

The rates are the standard rate in 지방세법 제111조제1항제3호나목 and the one-household-one-home special rate in 제111조의2. On a tax base up to ₩60,000,000 the rates are 0.1% standard and 0.05% special; up to ₩150,000,000, 0.15% and 0.1%; up to ₩300,000,000, 0.25% and 0.2%; above that, 0.4% and 0.35%. The table is progressive, so each band is computed as a base amount plus the excess times the rate; in the top band the base amount is ₩570,000 standard and ₩420,000 special. Local education tax under 제151조 adds 20% of the property tax.

There are three steps. Multiply the assessed price by the fair market value ratio to get the tax base; the statutory ratio for housing is 60%, and for housing the assessed price is the standard market value. Run the tax base through the rate table, using the special table if the home is a single household's only home with an assessed price of ₩0.9 billion or less, and the standard table otherwise. Add local education tax for the total. The saving from the special rate multiplied by the years you plan to hold gives the cumulative saving. Urban-area property tax, the regional resource facility tax, the tax burden ceiling and municipal rate adjustments by ordinance are not included.

Take the calculator's defaults: an assessed price of ₩900 million, a single household's only home, a fair market value ratio of 60% and ten years of ownership. The tax base is 60% of ₩900 million, ₩540 million. That is in the band above ₩300,000,000, so the standard rate gives ₩570,000 plus 0.4% of the ₩240 million excess, ₩960,000, for ₩1,530,000; the special rate gives ₩420,000 plus 0.35% of the excess, ₩840,000, for ₩1,260,000. The assessed price is within ₩0.9 billion, so the special rate applies: ₩1,260,000 of property tax plus 20% local education tax of ₩252,000, ₩1,512,000 in all.

The special rate saves ₩270,000 of property tax a year, ₩2,700,000 over ten years. If the same home were not a single household's only home, the standard rate would give ₩1,530,000 plus ₩306,000 of education tax, ₩1,836,000. If the assessed price rose to ₩1 billion, the home would exceed ₩0.9 billion even as an only home, the special rate would fall away, and the ₩600 million tax base at the standard rate would give ₩1,770,000 plus ₩354,000, ₩2,124,000.

The first is applying the rate to the whole assessed price. The tax base is the assessed price times the fair market value ratio, and that ratio can be adjusted by decree, so check the figure for the year in question. The second is thinking that above ₩0.9 billion only the excess moves to the standard rate. The special rate is lost in full. The third is forgetting the assessment date: sell the day after 1 June and that year's tax is still yours.

The fourth is expecting the calculator to match the bill. Actual bills often include urban-area property tax and the regional resource facility tax, municipalities can adjust rates by ordinance, and the tax burden ceiling applies separately. The fifth is treating the special rate as permanent. It is limited to liabilities arising by 28 December 2026, and continuing beyond that requires new legislation. It is also easy to miss that only one of the special rate, an ordinance reduction and a relief under the local tax special provisions applies, whichever gives the larger reduction.