文정부 보유세 인상...종부세 위상 10년 만에 되찾나

The wait is over.
A comprehensive tax reform for real estate is unveiled by the Moon administration.
It centers around taxing rich property owners harder.
Here's Choi Si-young with the details.

The South Korean government is raising taxes on wealthy homeowners... to reduce income disparities and even out tax imbalances.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance on Friday announced its plan to increase the main real estate holding tax by a tenth of a percentage point to half a percent... for properties worth 530-thousand U.S. dollars or more.
The maximum tax rate for homes will be raised from the current two percent to two-point-five percent.
And for people who have three houses or more,... there'll be a an extra third of a percentage point tacked on to that.

The government is also changing how it assesses a property's fair market value.
Currently a home's value, as assessed by the government,... is multiplied by 80 percent... to calculate "fair market value," which is then the basis for calculating tax.
This was originally done to help ease the burden on homeowners.
But the 80-percent rate will be raised by 5 percent a year until 2020,... bringing it to 90 percent... to better reflect real values.

The tax hike will affect around 340-thousand people, raising extra revenue worth 700-million U.S. dollars a year.
The government plans to use the extra money to give financial assistance to newlyweds and the underprivileged.
Choi Si-young, Arirang News.