Review Korean luxury-house acquisition tax before a contract
A spacious country house or large apartment can carry a substantial acquisition-tax increment under Korean law.
Luxury-house status is a statutory classification based on the independent dwelling, appurtenant land, official valuation and rules effective on the acquisition date.
Marketing descriptions and purchase price alone do not determine it.
This tool supports families buying retirement homes, purchasers reviewing a large apartment and owners planning an extension.
It compares the input-based classification, margins to legal thresholds and principal before and after the luxury surcharge.
Design planning means reviewing a change that actually satisfies the applicable rules; it does not approve the effects of splitting parcels or changing ownership.
The jurisdiction is Korea and the supported acquisition year is 2026.
Keep three different figures separate
Official value tests the luxury valuation condition, the acquired interest’s tax basis determines the amount multiplied by the rate, and the confirmed base rate excludes the additional luxury 8 percentage points.
A reduced purchase-price assumption does not automatically reduce official value.
2026 area and official-value thresholds
Detached house: either area route
Official value must exceed KRW900,000,000 together with either floor area excluding parking over 331 m² or appurtenant land over 662 m².
Reducing only the building area will not resolve this route if the land still exceeds its limit.
Apartment or independent multifamily unit
Official value must exceed KRW900 million and the independent unit’s area excluding common space must exceed 245 m².
Article 28(4)(4) includes multifamily dwellings and treats each independently usable part as a dwelling unit: verify the actual division rather than applying the detached-house rule to the entire building.
Duplex apartment
The total threshold is 274 m² only where no single floor exceeds 245 m².
If a floor exceeds 245 m², the duplex allowance does not apply and the 245 m² threshold is used.
Enter both total qualifying area and the largest single-floor area.
Equality and strict excess differ
Exactly KRW900,000,000 official value, 331 m² floor area or 662 m² land does not exceed the respective threshold.
The pool facility rule instead uses at least 67 m²: exactly 67 m² reaches that separate threshold.
Verify the dwelling unit, areas and actual land boundary
Use the building register and floor plans to identify floor area, parking, common space and independent units.
For a detached house, enter floor area excluding parking; for apartments, enter the individual unit’s area excluding common space.
When acquiring only an interest or part, keep the whole-dwelling assessment facts separate from the tax basis attributable to the acquired interest.
Actual use also matters
Appurtenant land is not necessarily limited to the single parcel named in a contract.
Confirm gardens, yards, adjacent land, boundaries and actual use with the competent tax authority.
Act Article 13(5) provides that where the boundary is unclear, appurtenant land is treated as ten times the building footprint.
A 67 m² footprint therefore produces 670 m² of land under this assumption, 8 m² above 662 m².
Enter zero for elevator load or pool area only when absence is confirmed.
Unknown facilities are not the same as absent facilities: incomplete inputs keep the decision pending.
Currency inputs are whole KRW and areas may contain decimals.
How to use the calculator and read margins
- Enter the statutory acquisition date, property type, whole-dwelling official value and the acquired interest’s principal-tax basis.
- Enter a confirmed principal rate before the luxury surcharge.
Separately verify home count, company status, regulated area, acquisition cause and relief; do not enter a rate that already includes the luxury 8 percentage points.
- Complete area, land-boundary and facility information, and enter an actual use or commencement date only when claiming the relevant exception.
- Optionally compare proposed areas and official value or an extension, then calculate.
Editing an input clears the previous result so a fresh calculation remains tied to the displayed facts.
- A negative margin means excess above the relevant threshold.
Use pending results as a list of questions for the authority, and save the TXT review with inputs and conditional outputs for comparison against plans and valuations.
Facility rules depend on the acquisition date
Through June 30, 2026, the Act includes a separate facilities route.
For detached houses, an elevator with rated load over 200 kg requires official value over KRW900 million; an elevator rated exactly 200 kg does not meet that elevator trigger.
An escalator or pool of at least 67 m² falls under Decree Article 28(4)(3), to which the KRW900 million proviso does not apply.
These facilities routes exclude apartments.
Facilities-only cases from July 1, 2026
The amended Act Article 13(5)(3), effective 2026-07-01, removes facility wording, but facility provisions remain in Decree Article 28 in the verified 2026-10-01 version.
A property already meeting the area-and-value route remains distinct from one whose result depends only on facilities.
The latter receives authority-review status with both principal scenarios, without an automatic exclusion or definitive surcharge decision.
The tool also withholds a definitive saving for an unresolved proposed design.
The 8-percentage-point formula and design example
Add to the confirmed principal rate
Baseline principal = tax basis × confirmed pre-surcharge rate ÷ 100.
Luxury principal = tax basis × (confirmed rate + 8) ÷ 100.
Additional burden = luxury principal − baseline principal.
The increment is 400% of the 2% surcharge reference rate, or 8 percentage points; it is not an 8% increase in the tax amount.
Act Article 13-2(3) addresses simultaneous application with the multiple-home or company rules.
Consider a fictional detached house with official value KRW1 billion, tax basis KRW1.5 billion, confirmed base rate 3%, floor area 332 m², land 600 m² and no facilities.
It meets the area-and-value route: baseline principal is KRW45,000,000, luxury principal is KRW165,000,000 and the difference is KRW120,000,000.
This is a principal-only comparison using the assumed confirmed basis and rate, not the complete transaction-tax total.
A proposed qualifying floor area of 331 m², with all other assumptions unchanged, no longer meets that area route.
If the land were still over 662 m², reducing floor area alone would not resolve it.
Establish any revised official value separately for the proposed design rather than substituting an arbitrarily lower contract price.
The 60-day exception requires actual qualifying action
The proviso to Act Article 13(5)(3) covers non-residential use within 60 days of acquisition, or commencement of change-of-use construction for non-luxury use within that period.
Selecting planned or under review keeps the exception decision pending.
Use the confirmed option only after verifying actual use or commencement and the legal requirements with the competent authority.
A reference date is not a definitive deadline
The tool adds 60 calendar days to the acquisition date and checks whether the entered use or commencement date lies within that nominal window.
It does not resolve first-day treatment, holidays, the correct tax-obligation date or individual exceptions.
Inheritance and disappearance have separate statutory six-month periods from the relevant month-end, or nine months for taxpayers with a foreign address: do not use this 60-day feature for those cases.
Separate five-year recapture from incremental extension value
Act Article 16(1)(3) provides recapture where the acquired property becomes luxury property within five years.
Article 16(2) separately specifies the applicable rate on increased building value after extension, reconstruction or renovation.
Moving work beyond five years therefore does not necessarily remove all surcharge.
The calculator separates an outside-to-luxury transition affecting the original acquisition from principal charged on incremental building value.
Fictional extension calculation
If the KRW1.5 billion original acquisition initially falls outside the criteria, ordinary principal has been paid, and extension triggers luxury status within five years, the original-acquisition increment scenario is KRW120,000,000.
With a separately confirmed incremental basis of KRW100,000,000 and incremental pre-surcharge rate 2.8%, extension principal is KRW10,800,000, including a KRW8,000,000 luxury increment.
Under the same fixed rules after the nominal five-year reference, the original increment becomes zero but incremental-value principal remains KRW10,800,000.
Land, facilities and the largest duplex floor are assumed unchanged; revise the primary inputs when these change.
Use an authority-confirmed conversion date based on completion approval or actual use as appropriate, rather than assuming the construction contract date is decisive.
Conversion after 2026 is shown only as a fixed-2026-rule assumption, without predicting future legislation.
Practical contract and design discussions
- Before buying a country house, establish whether yards, access land and adjacent parcels form part of the actual appurtenant land, and verify official value before finalizing the settlement budget.
- For a duplex penthouse, check whether any single floor exceeds 245 m² even when total area is no more than 274 m², and verify common-space classifications against plans.
- When considering a parcel split, verify actual independent use after splitting and the rules on divided or staggered acquisitions, rather than relying only on a new parcel number.
- For a conversion clause, discuss actual commencement evidence, responsibility for additional tax and price-adjustment conditions with the relevant professionals; a construction agreement alone is not performance of the exception.
Pending review never means zero tax.
Identify which valuation, dwelling-unit, facility, rate or exception facts remain unresolved and budget against the displayed ordinary and luxury principal scenarios.
The tool does not guarantee relief, the validity of ownership arrangements, artificial use changes or tax outcomes under future laws.
Frequently asked questions
Does a purchase price below KRW900 million establish exclusion?
No: the KRW900 million threshold concerns the whole dwelling’s official value at acquisition, which does not automatically fall when the agreed purchase price changes.
Do exactly 331 m² of floor area or 662 m² of land exceed the limits?
Equality does not satisfy these strict greater-than thresholds, but the other area route, facilities and actual appurtenant-land boundary must also be checked.
Does splitting the land or using family members’ names remove the surcharge?
Decree Article 28(1) addresses divided acquisitions by multiple people and acquisitions at different times, so separate parcel numbers or ownership alone do not establish exclusion.
Should an entire multifamily building be compared with 331 m²?
Decree Article 28(4)(4) includes independent multifamily dwelling units within its apartment rule: verify each independently usable unit and use the multifamily-unit option.
Is an elevator-only case excluded after July 2026?
The Act removed facility wording while the decree retains facility provisions, so the calculator withholds a definitive facilities-only decision and requests authority review.
Does signing a design contract within 60 days establish the exception?
A plan or contract alone is insufficient: confirm actual non-residential use or commencement of qualifying construction to convert the property to non-luxury use and the applicable legal conditions.
Does an extension after five years escape all surcharge?
No: Article 16(1) recapture on the original acquisition and Article 16(2) treatment of incremental building value are separate, and the latter can remain after five years.
Does the result equal the complete tax notice?
No: it estimates principal from the verified pre-surcharge rate and basis, excluding local education tax, rural special tax, relief, penalties, registration costs and statutory rounding adjustments.
Official sources, effective versions and update checks
Checked October 28, 2026 through the National Law Information OPEN API.
Local Tax Act ID001649/MST282559 supplies Articles 13, 13-2 and 16; effective-date API versions were compared for the July 1, 2026 amendment to Article 13(5)(3).
Decree ID005077/MST290815 is effective October 1, 2026, and Article 28(4) was compared across eight 2026 effective versions.
Acquisitions after 2026 remain unsupported until the applicable promulgated rules are rechecked.
Recheck official facility interpretations, new effective versions, the actual dwelling and land boundary, the rate, acquisition and conversion dates, exception requirements and incremental value for each transaction.
Whole-KRW budget rounding may differ from statutory notice rounding.
Take the comparison to the authority and your designer
Prepare building records, plans and official valuations, compare the current and proposed designs, and save the TXT review.
Discuss the verified facts with the seller, designer and competent tax department before reflecting them in contract clauses and extension plans.
Also review ordinary acquisition tax and home-count rates