This photo, taken April 16, 2021, shows signboards showing price movements of bitcoin and other virtual currencies on a local exchange. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s virtual asset service providers had a banner year in 2020, data showed Thursday.
The income of businesses in the category of database and online information provision, which includes virtual asset service providers such as exchanges, totaled 13.9 trillion won (US$11.7 billion) last year, according to data that Rep. Park Hong-geun of the Democratic Party received from the National Tax Service.
This figure is about 5.6 times higher than the 2.5 trillion won reported for businesses in the category of portal and Internet information mediation services including Naver.
The total tax burden on the income of virtual asset service providers was estimated at 531 billion won.
In particular, the 37 businesses in the top 1 percent by income, including the nation’s leading virtual asset exchanges, saw their combined income reach 9.7 trillion won last year, accounting for 69.5 percent of total income, with the amount of tax burden on their income estimated at 463.8 billion won or 87.2 percent of the total tax burden.
However, since there is no separate category for virtual asset exchanges, it is difficult to accurately identify the exact amount of their income and tax burden.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
