Acquisition tax is not set by the price — the same ₩600M home pays ₩6.6M or ₩74.4M depending on house count and area

Two identical ₩600M apartments. One buyer paid ₩6.6M in acquisition tax, the other ₩74.4M. The price is the same; what differs is how many homes the buyer already owned and where the home is. Someone who signed believing the rate was 1% learns about 12% only when the bill arrives on settlement day, after the deposit is in. Money leaves without you knowing what you missed. It is paid once, but that once is tens of millions of won. Acquisition tax is not one line of a rate table but a three-layer judgment, and most people know only the first and fall at the second. Count it to the nearest ₩100,000 before you sign.

Step ② House count and area is where the tax jumps tenfold. The test is how many homes the household holds after the purchase and whether the home is in a regulated area. Regulated: second home 8%, third or more 12%; elsewhere: third 8%, fourth 12%; corporations 12% from the first home, and under heavy rates local education tax is fixed at 0.4%. A ₩600M home splits into ₩6.6M for one home, ₩50.4M as a regulated second home and ₩74.4M as a third, and this is where the two buyers in the opening parted. Most people get confused here: it is a household count as of the acquisition date, so a spouse's home counts too. The way out is the temporary two-home rule: sell the previous home within the deadline and the heavy rate does not apply. Sign without knowing and you pay ₩67.8M more.

The pre-contract worksheet is three lines. ① Is the price ₩600M or less, above ₩900M, or in between; ② household house count and area, combining spouse and household members, with the regulated-area check and the deadline if it is a temporary two-home case; ③ floor area and relief, 85㎡ and first-home eligibility at ₩1.2B or less. With those three lines filled in, acquisition tax preparation is done and there is no surprise on settlement day. Inheritance at 2.8% and gifts at 3.5% use different tables altogether; today's table is for homes bought with money.

All three steps are passed. Start with the price band, jump tenfold at house count and area, and finish with floor area and relief. The same ₩600M split into ₩6.6M and ₩74.4M because of the buyer's circumstances. Signing without counting houses costs ₩67.8M more, and missing first-home relief costs ₩2M. Two things to do now: write down the household's homes by name and whether the area is regulated, and put the first-home requirements, the ₩1.2B cap and the 60-day filing deadline on the calendar. Check temporary two-home deadlines and regulated-area designations with the district tax office or a tax adviser.