Why compare capital and people before Korean construction registration?
Expanding from interiors into waterproofing or window installation involves business registration requirements as well as project costs.
Adding every sector’s minimum can tie up more household cash than necessary, while reusing an already claimed reduction can leave the business below registration standards.
This Korea-based calculator applies the verified 2026 rules and separates capital, distinct qualified people and documentary preparation.
Registration, the scope of work a business may execute and public-tender eligibility are separate decisions.
The output is a preparation comparison for a first registration or additional sectors, not registration approval or permission to lend a licence or name.
All monetary inputs and outputs are in KRW.
Supported specialist sectors and primary fields
Select one to three of the following sectors, with exactly one primary field in each.
The figures are the basic Annex 2 standards before relief.
A beginner grade alone is insufficient: the engineering discipline or relevant technical-qualification category must also match.
Korean 2026 basic capital and people for one primary field in each supported sector| Sector / qualification discipline | Corporate / individual capital | People |
|---|
| Interior: architecture beginner or higher, or relevant qualification | KRW 150,000,000 | 2 |
| Metal / windows / roofing / assembly: mechanical, civil or architecture beginner or higher, or relevant qualification | KRW 150,000,000 | 2 |
| Painting / wet work / waterproofing / stonework: civil or architecture beginner or higher, or relevant qualification | KRW 150,000,000 | 2 |
The metal sector offers metal structures, windows and greenhouses, or roof sheet metal and building assembly.
The finishing sector offers painting, wet work and waterproofing, or stonework.
Interior construction has one field in this table.
Combinations that remain pending
General construction, gas/heating, any held sector outside this table, multiple primary fields in one sector, building master-craftsman reductions and other special relief require separate review.
Include every held sector: omitting one can change the largest statutory minimum and the relief history.
What the inputs mean
Held sectors, new sectors and history
A first registration has new sectors only; an addition requires both held and new sectors.
Within the supported scope, an existing valid general capital reduction is KRW 75 million; general plus long-service reductions total KRW 150 million.
Existing staffing relief is one person.
These must still apply to retained sectors; do not reuse relief associated with a cancelled or changed registration.
Leave unverified histories unconfirmed.
Capital evidence and actual people
Corporations enter paid-in or contributed capital and verified real capital separately.
Sole proprietors enter the assessed value of business-use assets.
Count distinct people whose qualifications and allocation to the final combination have been checked, not certificates.
Blank means unknown; zero means a confirmed zero.
General capital relief and simultaneous first registration
General relief = min(largest held statutory minimum ÷ 2, added sector’s statutory minimum ÷ 2)
Decree Article 16(1)(1) limits the reduction to one sector.
All supported basic minimums are KRW 150 million, so the confirmed reduction is KRW 75 million.
Article 16(4) applies the same general provision to first registration of two or more sectors simultaneously.
First registration of one sector has a zero reduction.
Required capital equals the sum of basic sector minimums minus existing valid relief and newly recognized relief.
Selecting three sectors does not create a general reduction for each sector.
Requesting general relief again after using it adds no new general reduction.
When recognition of an otherwise applicable request is unconfirmed, required capital stays pending.
The separate 15-year long-service provision
General relief already recognized
Article 16(2) covers businesses that have received general capital relief, operated in construction for at least 15 years, and had no specified sanctions or penalties for violating the Act in the last 10 years.
They may receive one additional capital reduction on adding another sector, subject to the same half-minimum cap.
Years of operation alone do not establish eligibility.
Two sectors added simultaneously
Article 16(3) lets a qualifying existing business apply paragraphs 1 and 2 respectively when adding at least two sectors simultaneously.
The supported combination is one held sector and two new sectors, with the reductions attributed to different new sectors.
Long-service relief does not create an additional staffing reduction.
The ten-year check covers administrative sanctions under Act Articles 82, 82-2 and 83 and penalties for violating this Act.
Under the proviso to Article 16(2), a relevant sanction or penalty after recognition requires restoring the added sector’s minimum capital within 60 days from that sanction or penalty.
Worked fictional examples
Example A: first registration of interiors and waterproofing
Two sectors have basic capital of KRW 300,000,000 and a headcount sum of four.
Confirmed general capital relief of KRW 75,000,000 and one shared-person recognition produce required capital of KRW 225,000,000 and three distinct people.
Verified paid capital of KRW 200,000,000 and real capital of KRW 180,000,000 give separate shortfalls of KRW 25,000,000 and KRW 45,000,000.
The capital top-up reference is the larger KRW 45,000,000.
Two appropriately allocatable people give a hiring reference of one person.
Example B: three first-time sectors or a long-service addition
Three first-time sectors with general relief only require KRW 450,000,000 − KRW 75,000,000 = KRW 375,000,000.
One confirmed shared-person reduction changes six people to five.
An existing two-sector business with valid general relief, 15 years of activity, a clean ten-year history and recognized additional long-service relief instead has total capital reductions of KRW 150,000,000, giving required capital of KRW 300,000,000.
If one-person technical relief was already used, the final required headcount remains five.
Do not add paid-capital and real-capital shortfalls
Registered paid capital can be adequate while liabilities or ineligible assets leave real capital insufficient.
Annex 2 note 3(b) uses total assets minus total liabilities when that amount is below capital.
Bank balances alone do not replace diagnostic asset valuation and evidence.
Shortfall = max(0, required capital − verified capital)
For corporations, the combined top-up reference is the larger paid or real capital shortfall.
It is not their sum because the same capital injection can affect both measures.
An unconfirmed side leaves the combined reference pending.
Sole proprietors have no corporate paid-capital shortfall.
Discuss actual capital increases, debt repayments and asset adjustments with the diagnostic institution.
Staffing overlap and the hiring reference
Article 16(1)(2) recognizes one shared person for one sector when technical capacity is of the same type and grade and can be used jointly.
The general two-person branch requires at least five shareable people, which cannot apply to these two-person primary-field standards.
Entering two shared people still gives only one reduction.
People must satisfy full-time service, valid qualification and other Annex 2 note 1 requirements, including the relevant qualification categories.
This tool collects counts and confirmation states, not names or certificate numbers.
Hiring reference = max(0, required distinct people − verified allocatable people).
Adequate headcount does not guarantee that every discipline and allocation requirement is met.
Deposit quotes and cash are a separate comparison
Separate cash budget = confirmed additional deposit quote + diagnostic / registration expense quotes
A fictional deposit of KRW 50,000,000 plus expenses of KRW 2,000,000 gives KRW 52,000,000.
Against KRW 30,000,000 available cash, the shortfall is KRW 22,000,000.
Do not automatically add it to Example A’s KRW 45,000,000 capital top-up reference.
Ask the diagnostic and financial institutions whether deposited assets count as capital and when funds must be available.
The Article 13 guarantee-capacity certificate depends on financial and credit assessment and collateral or deposit conditions.
No national deposit percentage or mutual-aid-association unit count is inferred.
Enter zero when no additional deposit is confirmed, and leave a missing quote blank.
How to use the review and prepare documents
- List all held and new sectors and one primary field for each, then confirm the supported scope.
- Check capital and staffing relief separately in previous applications; if cancellation or sector changes altered prior relief, mark scope as no instead of relabelling it unused.
- Verify completed years, the ten-year sanction and penalty history, and recognition of the current request with the authority.
- Confirm accounts, capital diagnostics, qualifications, career records, full-time service and the final allocation plan.
- Enter actual additional deposit and expense quotes and available cash, then resolve each pending item.
- Save the TXT review and check it with the diagnostic institution and registration authority before funding, hiring and applying.
Changing an input hides the previous result; submit again to update it.
Capital and staffing assessments remain independent, so an unresolved capital request does not conceal an otherwise verified staffing result.
Unconfirmed capital evidence withholds actual shortfalls while preserving a calculable statutory requirement.
Frequently asked questions
Do two specialist sectors always require KRW 300 million?
That is the sum before relief.
Confirmed general relief of KRW 75 million reduces the requirement to KRW 225 million.
Previous use or unconfirmed recognition can change the result.
Can a first-time business use overlap relief?
Article 16(4) applies paragraph 1 to a person first registering two or more sectors simultaneously.
First registration of just one sector has no general overlap relief.
Confirm the application and recognition with the authority.
Does previous capital relief mean staffing relief was also used?
No.
Article 16(1) has separate capital and technical-capacity provisions.
Check each application history independently.
The long-service additional provision concerns capital only.
Can two shared people produce a two-person reduction?
The general reduction is one person, or two when at least five people can be shared.
Each supported primary field requires two people, so this tool cannot use the five-person branch.
It never deducts one person for every newly added sector.
What if the business has 15 years of activity but sanctions are unconfirmed?
Long-service relief also requires no relevant sanctions or penalties in the last ten years.
Unconfirmed history leaves the capital result pending.
Relevant sanctions or penalties after relief trigger the 60-day capital-restoration requirement.
Can I add painting and waterproofing as primary fields in one sector?
This tool assumes one primary field per sector.
Additional fields within the same sector use the separate Article 16(5) branch, including one shared person per field and gas/heating exceptions.
Choose separate review instead of treating a primary field as another sector.
What about a building master-craftsman qualification?
Annex 2 note 3(c) provides a half-minimum-capital reduction for qualifying operators of these three sectors holding the specified building qualification.
This tool does not calculate its interaction with overlap relief.
Mark scope as not confirmed and ask the authority and diagnostic institution.
Will depositing the shortfall complete registration?
No.
Asset eligibility, paid and real capital, qualifications, full-time service, allocation, office premises and the guarantee-capacity certificate need separate examination.
Deposit quotes depend on financial and credit assessment.
This calculator is neither approval nor a capital diagnostic report.
Official sources and rule dates
Verified 2026-11-03; Decree effective 2026-06-23; Annex 2 amended 2025-10-01.
Direct National Law Information OPEN API checks identified current law ID 002115, MST 287349 and annex ID 18198353.
Articles 13 and 16 and the full-text Annex 2 Item 2(b)–(d), notes 1 and 3 were cross-checked.
The English version uses the same Korean jurisdiction, evidence and formulas.
Recheck amendments at application time, continuing validity of earlier relief, qualification categories, full-time allocation, office premises, certificates, capital diagnostics and actual deposit quotes.
This calculator does not issue a diagnostic report, determine registration approval or perform a financial institution’s credit assessment.