Lee stresses easing of comprehensive real estate tax

Dec 28, 2021, 09:23 am

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Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), walks along with former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yong at the launching ceremony of a new campaign committee for state vision and national unity held at the party’s headquarters in Seoul on Dec. 27, 2021./ Photographed by Jung Jae-hoon

AsiaToday reporter Jeong Geum-min

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), is trying to differentiate himself from the Moon Jae-in administration with the goal of achieving so-called the ‘golden cross’, which refers to reversing approval ratings, before the Lunar New Year holidays aimed at achieving internal unity and even winning swing voters over.

On December 27, Lee stressed that the government should postpone the implementation of comprehensive real estate taxes for retirees who has been owning single house for a long time. He also claimed that the government should ease the taxes for home owners who temporarily own two houses due to job flipping, school attendance, inheritance, and more. He tried to differentiate himself by indicating blind point of the Moon administration’s real estate policy and suggesting improvement measures.

Lee wrote on his Facebook page, “The government has been pushing comprehensive real estate tax reform against housing price hikes. But its poor system design has caused many people suffer injustice.”

“The government should not persist its policy consistency or ideology to make people’s life difficult. Real estate policy is a painful part of the current administration. I will be the first to reflect on it, and carefully examine the situation to come up with the necessary policies for the people,” he said.

Lee also argued that houses under the clan’s name, traditionally preserved houses, cooperative social houses, and hometown houses should be excluded from heavy taxation. “The system that the people feel unfair should be rectified immediately. I ask the ruling party and the government to improve the system promptly,” he said.

Lee and the government have shown different views in many pending issues, including the temporary suspension of capital gains tax for multi-homeowners and the raising of the country’s state-assessed price value for homes. It is because Lee cannot ignore the public opinion of a ‘regime change’ ahead of next year’s presidential election. It is a known winning strategy for a presidential candidate of a ruling party to differentiate himself from the incumbent administration.

In fact, a recent survey by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) showed that 48.1 percent of people said that an opposition candidate should be elected as a president for regime change. Only 37.5 percent of the respondents said that a ruling party candidate should be elected to re-create the government. The poll was conducted on 1,000 adults nationwide from Dec. 24 to 25 on the request of TBS.

However, he is unlikely to directly criticize the Moon administration until he achieves a clear golden cross.

#Lee Jae-myung #comprehensive real estate tax