South Korea's National Tax Service is preparing detailed guidance for virtual-asset taxation around November, its commissioner said during an October 13 parliamentary audit. The announcement aims to clarify how different kinds of cryptocurrency income will be classified as the country approaches a planned January 2027 start for crypto taxation.
Commissioner Lim Kwang-hyun addressed transactions that are more complicated than straightforward sales. Staking can generate rewards for committing holdings to a network, while airdrops distribute tokens to users. Lending digital assets for compensation poses a related question: is the amount received the proceeds of a sale or payment for temporary use?
Substance rather than labels
According to Dong-A Ilbo, Lim said the economic substance of a transaction should matter more than its product name. This distinction affects services that advertise different labels for similar transfers or rewards. SBS independently reported that the agency was preparing to issue a notice next month.
Some matters still require coordination with the finance ministry. The commissioner's comments did not settle the final treatment of every product and did not announce a new tax rate. Investors should not assume that the planned November document has already been finalized or that all staking and lending arrangements will be treated identically.
The next milestone is the official notice and the reporting instructions that follow. Users and exchanges will need to understand how to track acquisition costs, distributions and income received across services. The news is about rules being prepared, not an immediate liability created by the commissioner's remarks.