By Kang Yoon-seung
SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) — The amount of taxes collected by South Korea has dropped by 47.6 trillion won (US$34.9 billion) compared to last year, as revealed by data on Wednesday, due to the prolonged downturn of the real estate market.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance reported that the total tax revenue between January and August was 241.6 trillion won, which is a significant decrease from the 289.3 trillion won collected during the same period in 2022.
This decrease was mainly attributed to the reduced amount of capital gains and gift taxes collected, as a result of fewer houses being traded.
Additionally, corporate taxes decreased by 20.2 trillion won as companies experienced poor earnings in 2022.
In August alone, the government gathered 24 trillion won in taxes, 4.3 trillion won less than the previous year.
Last month, the finance ministry revised its annual tax revenue estimate to 341.4 trillion won, 59.1 trillion won lower than the initial outlook, due to the weakened corporate earnings and the decline in the property market.
colin@yna.co.kr
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