Buying a home in Korea puts more than one tax on the notice. Local education tax and special rural development tax ride along with the acquisition tax. And between KRW 600m and 900m the rate is not in any table — it comes out of a formula, so “1 to 3%” will not produce a figure.
1. The same KRW 900m home runs from 29.7m to 120.6m — 4.06 times. What separates them is not the home but the number of homes after the purchase and the 85㎡ line.
2. The 600m–900m band is a slope, not a step. Rate = (price × 2 ÷ 300m − 3) × 1/100, rounded at the fifth decimal to four places (art. 11(1)8(b)).
3. The 85㎡ line is worth KRW 1.8m on a 900m home — and 9m under the 12% heavy rate. There is a reason the standard Korean apartment is 84㎡.
Price, homes, region and floor area produce all three taxes separately, plus the effective rate.
Purchases only. Inheritance, gifts and newly built property use different rates. The count is of homes AFTER the purchase, across the whole household — a first-time buyer holds one home. The rate is set by the value of the whole home, not by what you paid: buying a share means running the statute’s conversion first (whole value = share value × whole assessed value ÷ share assessed value). First-home and childbirth reliefs are not applied — their conditions and caps are set out in the acquisition tax guide. Agent and conveyancing fees are not taxes and sit outside this. An estimate.
The numbers this calculator uses, and where they come from
The three taxes come from two different acts. Which is why one percentage cannot produce the notice.
| Tax | Formula | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Acquisition tax (up to 600m) | 1% | Local Tax Act art. 11(1)8(a) |
| Acquisition tax (600m–900m) | (price × 2 ÷ 300m − 3) × 1/100 | same, (b) |
| Acquisition tax (over 900m) | 3% | same, (c) |
| Local education tax | (rate × 50%) × 20% 0.4% when heavy | Local Tax Act art. 151 |
| Rural development surtax | 10% of the tax computed at 2% exempt at 85㎡ or less | Rural Surtax Act art. 5(1)6 |
The heavy rates turn on the number of homes AFTER the purchase and whether the area is regulated.
| Homes after purchase | Regulated area | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–3% | 1–3% |
| 2 | 8% | 1–3% |
| 3 | 12% | 8% |
| 4 or more · corporate | 12% | 12% |
The same KRW 900m home spans 4.06 times
| KRW 900m home | Acquisition | Education | Rural | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 home · 85㎡ or less | 27m | 2.7m | — | 29.7m |
| 1 home · over 85㎡ | 27m | 2.7m | 1.8m | 31.5m |
| 2 homes, regulated · 85㎡ or less | 72m | 3.6m | — | 75.6m |
| 2 homes, regulated · over 85㎡ | 72m | 3.6m | 5.4m | 81m |
| 3 homes, regulated · 85㎡ or less | 108m | 3.6m | — | 111.6m |
| 3 homes, regulated · over 85㎡ | 108m | 3.6m | 9m | 120.6m |
Top to bottom is 4.06 times. And notice that the education tax only moves from 2.7m to 3.6m — it is fixed at 0.4% under the heavy rates. The acquisition tax quadruples while the education tax rises 1.33 times. How the two surtaxes diverge is set out in the rural surtax and the 85㎡ line.
600m to 900m is a slope, not a step
The ends meet exactly. Feed in 600m and the formula returns 1.0000%, matching paragraph (a); feed in 900m and it returns 3.0000%, matching (c). So nothing jumps at 601m.
What does change is what another KRW 10m of price costs — about 500,000 won at 600m, 894,000 at 890m, and then 300,000 once past 900m. That is worked through in the marginal rate inside the slope.
What this calculator does not do
First-home and childbirth reliefs are not applied. Their conditions (no home in the household, a price ceiling) and caps vary by region, so applying them automatically would produce a wrong figure. The conditions are in the acquisition tax guide.
It will not count your homes for you. Whether purchase rights, occupancy rights, officetels and inherited shares count is where this calculation starts, and that judgement is human.
Inheritance, gifts and new construction use different rates. This covers purchases only.
Agent fees, conveyancing and stamp duty sit outside the tax notice. A full cost of buying has to add those separately.
Questions that remain
Contract date or completion date?
For a purchase, the balance payment date is described as the acquisition date. Which means when you set completion can change the rate — if another home was bought or sold in between, the count differs. The filing deadline runs from it too. How a registration date differing from the balance date is treated we could not verify against the statute.
What does “homes after the purchase” mean?
The count once this home is yours. A first-time buyer holds one; an existing owner buying a second holds two. And it is counted across the whole household — homes not in your name still count if they are in your household. That single line separates 8% from 1–3%.
Does temporary two-home status really get the one-home rate?
It is described as applying on condition that the existing home is sold within a set period. Setting the calculator’s temporary option to yes computes it that way. But the disposal period varies by region and date and we could not verify it — miss it and the difference is clawed back, which between 8% and 1–3% is a large sum. The status has to be declared when filing.
Why 85㎡?
Only the rural development surtax looks at that line; acquisition tax and education tax ignore floor area. On a 900m home it is 1.8m won, and 9m under the 12% heavy rate. There is a reason the standard Korean apartment is 84㎡ — set out in the rural surtax and the 85㎡ line. It is exclusive area, not supply area.
Why so many decimal places in the rate?
Because in the 600m–900m band the rate is not a tabled figure but the output of a formula. The statute rounds at the fifth decimal to four places. But sources split on where those four places sit — some publish 1.6667%, others 1.67%. We followed this site’s existing notation and took the first; the gap is at most 29,667 won. Confirm the actual assessment on Wetax.
Sources
Local Tax Act art. 11(1)8 (paragraph (a) 10/1,000, (b) the formula, (c) 30/1,000, plus the conversion for buying a share) · art. 13-2 (heavy rates for multiple homes) · art. 151 (local education tax).
Rural Special Surtax Act art. 5(1)6 — 10% of the acquisition tax computed at 2%. Under a heavy rate, the amount added by the heavy rate (4 points at 8%, 8 points at 12%) is added to that 2%.
Cross-checked against three unrelated sources, and the six rows quoted from the statute in this site’s acquisition tax guide were reproduced to the won before anything went into the calculator. That guide left the rural surtax blank as “a separate act, so the rate is not copied here” — this is the gap now filled. The statute itself could not be opened — the national law portal blocks automated retrieval.
Where to check further
The Wetax acquisition tax calculator. It is the reference for the actual assessment.
The exclusive floor area on the register or contract. Not the supply area.
Every home held by the household. Where this calculation starts, and where it most often goes wrong.
The local authority. Regulated-area status, temporary two-home deadlines and relief conditions all change with time.
