Han Dong-hoon, leader of South Korea's opposition People Power Party, has called for delaying the country's planned cryptocurrency tax by at least two years, arguing that the government must first secure reliable trading data from overseas exchanges, according to a report by Bloomingbit.

His position lands at the center of a policy fight that has dragged on for years in Seoul. South Korean lawmakers have repeatedly postponed the launch of the 20% capital gains tax on crypto profits since it was first legislated, with the threshold for taxable gains set at 2.5 million won (roughly $1,900) per year. The tax was originally scheduled to take effect in 2022, and successive delays have pushed the start date to January 2025.

Han's argument is operational rather than ideological. Crypto taxation in Korea faces a structural data problem: the National Tax Service can directly track transactions on domestic exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit, all of which operate under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. That law requires exchanges to verify customer identities through real-name bank accounts and to share records with authorities.

Overseas platforms fall outside that perimeter. Korean investors can trade on foreign exchanges without those reporting obligations, which creates an enforcement gap. A taxpayer could realize gains on an offshore venue and leave the tax service with no visibility into the activity. Han contends that until the government can obtain cross-border trading data through international cooperation or expanded information-sharing agreements, the tax would apply unevenly and penalize users of domestic exchanges.

That gap has precedent in Korean tax enforcement. Authorities have struggled to collect taxes on crypto holdings routed through foreign platforms, and the existing framework for automatic exchange of financial information was designed for traditional institutions rather than digital asset venues. Extending that framework to crypto would require either new bilateral agreements or amendments to domestic reporting rules.

The political timing matters. Han leads the main opposition force against the Democratic Party government of President Lee Jae-myung, and crypto tax policy has become a recurring battleground between the two camps. The Democratic Party has signaled willingness to adjust the tax, with discussions inside the government and the legislature about whether to delay implementation again, raise the deduction threshold, or both. Han's demand for a minimum two-year postponement sets a marker for opposition negotiations over any tax legislation in the current session.

For Korean exchanges, a further delay would preserve the status quo they have lobbied for. Domestic platforms have warned that taxing crypto gains at a far lower threshold than the 50 million won allowance applied to local stocks would push users toward offshore venues that the tax service cannot monitor, eroding both compliance and their market share. Han's data-first framing directly echoes that argument.

The institutional consequence cuts both ways. A two-year delay would give regulators time to build the information-sharing infrastructure the tax service says it needs, including agreements with foreign jurisdictions where Korean users hold accounts. It would also postpone a revenue stream the finance ministry has already booked into fiscal planning assumptions in earlier budget cycles.

What remains unresolved is sequencing. Han has effectively made overseas data access a precondition for taxation rather than a parallel workstream, which would require the government to negotiate data arrangements before the tax activates rather than after. Whether the National Tax Service can close that gap within any delay window depends on cooperation from jurisdictions that host the exchanges Korean traders actually use.

The immediate decision point is the January 2025 start date. Lawmakers must amend the Income Tax Act before that deadline to push it again, and with Han's party controlling the terms of opposition support, any bill that reaches a vote will likely carry the two-year postponement he has demanded.