South Korea has said it will seek another delay to its tax on cryptocurrency gains, pushing the start date back by two years to 2029 in what would be the fourth postponement since the levy was first legislated.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il announced the plan at a briefing in Seoul on Thursday, 5 November. The government will consult the National Assembly to move the start date from 1 January 2027 to 2029, and will need lawmakers to amend the Income Tax Act before the delay can take effect.

The tax was introduced through legislation in 2020 and was originally scheduled to begin in 2022. It has since been pushed back to 2023, then to 2025, then to 2027. Under the existing framework, annual gains above 2.5 million won, about $1,860, from virtual asset transactions would be taxed at 20 percent, rising to 22 percent including local income tax.

Lee gave two main reasons for the latest delay. The first is the timetable for exchanging tax information with the United States, which is due to begin in 2029 under the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. The government argued that taxing crypto gains before that exchange begins could put South Korea's domestic trading platforms at a disadvantage compared with overseas platforms, where transactions would be harder to track.

The second reason is the country's unfinished digital asset rulebook. Pending legislation, including the Digital Assets Act, could change how cryptocurrencies are regulated, and the government said the tax framework would need to be adjusted to match. A joint public-private working group will be set up to develop detailed taxation standards and improve reporting systems.

Alongside the postponement, Seoul plans to introduce a three-year loss carryforward provision. That would allow investors to deduct trading losses from taxable gains arising over the following three years, addressing concerns that investors could face tax on profits in one year despite substantial losses in another. The measure, like the delay itself, requires legislative approval.

The government has set out a timetable for the work. It aims to prepare proposed reforms by the first half of 2027, submit the necessary legislative amendments during that year's regular parliamentary session, and announce detailed taxation guidelines in the first half of 2028. Lee acknowledged concerns about yet another delay, but said the principle of taxing income would remain unchanged and that the extra time was intended to ensure the system takes effect properly in 2029.

For now, traders face no change in the law. The tax remains on the statute book, but collection cannot begin on the new date until the National Assembly votes for it. Repeated postponements have raised questions about the consistency of the government's tax policy, and crypto investors in South Korea will be watching the Assembly closely to see whether the fourth delay is approved, or whether the levy finally comes into force as planned.