Korea Multi-Home Sale Order Capital Gains Tax Comparison
Compare sale orders and year splits for two or three Korean homes, including the final-home exemption, deductions, surcharges and annual settlement.
Korean tax rules verified 2026-10-04. The 2027 comparison freezes 2026 rules, sale prices and residence months. Annual estimates exclude tax relief, penalties and prepaid tax.
Sale dates and calculation scope
Compare all sales in one year, a split after one home and, for three homes, a split after two. Zero spacing models the selected order on the same day. Verify acquisition, residence, contracts and permits.
Home 1
Home 2
Use distinct home names and positive sale prices. Check all dates, amounts and periods.
Official sources: Income Tax Act, Articles 55, 89, 92, 95, 102, 103, 104Decree, Articles 154, 159-4, 160, 167-2, 167-3, 167-10Local Tax Act, Article 103-3NTS capital gains tax rates
Why the order of Korean home sales changes total tax
When selling two or three homes before retirement, the household holds a different number of homes at each disposal.
A home sold first can be taxable while the same home sold last can qualify for the ordinary one-household, one-home exemption.
Selling in different calendar years can also change progressive tax and the annual allowance, even when the dates are close together.
Checking a separate estimate for each home does not by itself reproduce the annual settlement.
This calculator compares permutations of two or three ordinary domestic Korean homes and allocations across two calendar years.
It uses the same expected prices, acquisition records and residence assumptions for each order.
The minimum is the lowest tax among the entered schedules, conditional on their assumptions and supported tax cases.
It does not establish the best achievable market price, confirm exemption eligibility or guarantee that a buyer will accept the proposed closing date.
The decision to check before signing
Decide which home to retain until the final disposal and whether to move a closing into the next year.
Then compare the tax difference with financing, holding costs, vacancy, buyer availability and documented eligibility.
Use the existing single-sale capital gains calculator when reviewing one disposal independently, and bring both sets of assumptions to your tax adviser.
Prepare the inputs for each home
Acquisition and documented costs
Enter the tax-relevant acquisition date after checking settlement and registration records.
Keep purchase price separate from eligible acquisition tax, brokerage and capital improvement expenses.
Loan principal and recurring management costs are not automatically deductible acquisition or disposal expenses.
Retain evidence and confirm which costs qualify before including them.
Expected price and residence
Enter an expected sale price in KRW, consistently across all schedules.
Residence months are completed months already achieved by the first sale date.
Waiting until the following year does not automatically add residence months.
If future occupancy is important, verify that it will count and review the revised assumption separately.
Acquisition-time residence requirement
The ordinary exemption residence requirement depends on regulated-area status at acquisition and applicable transitional exceptions.
Enter the final verified requirement, separately from regulated status at sale.
A pre-designation acquisition contract and deposit can affect the residence rule in some cases, so the current area name alone is insufficient.
Regulated status at sale
Multi-home surcharges depend on the disposal-time designation and the relevant household home count.
The calculation counts all entered ordinary homes.
Low-value regional homes, registered rentals or other count exclusions need separate verification and are outside this ordinary-case comparison.
Use distinct labels such as A and B and enter prices in whole won.
KRW 500,000,000 is five hundred million won; it is not 500,000.
You can delete and replace digits or paste comma-separated numbers.
Invalid dates, zero sale prices and residence months exceeding ownership before the first sale date withhold the comparison until corrected.
How to compare orders step by step
- Choose the first sale date in 2026 and the first next-year sale date in 2027.
Set spacing between same-year disposals from 0 to 30 days; spaced dates must remain in their assigned calendar year. - Enter two or three homes, their acquisition values, expenses, sale prices and completed residence months.
The example button loads fictional values, which should be replaced with your records. - Choose whether to consider the ordinary exemption for the final home and confirm the single-taxpayer, household-wide scope.
Joint shares, inheritance, gifts, temporary two-home special rules or additional acquisitions require a different review. - For regulated homes, enter applicable binding contract, deposit and permit records.
Choosing a deadline does not by itself confirm surcharge exclusion.
Check the sequence of application, approval and contract against actual evidence. - Select a result row to inspect deductions, remaining home counts and annual tax comparison.
Save the assumptions and results for a tax adviser before negotiating closing dates.
How many schedules are compared?
Two homes have two orders and two year allocations, giving four schedules.
Three homes have six orders, each with all sales in one year, a split after one home and a split after two homes, giving eighteen schedules.
Zero spacing models the taxpayer-selected disposal order on the same day under Decree Article 154(9).
The star identifies a minimum only when every schedule in the comparison is supported.
From capital gain to annual total tax
Income from each disposal
Gain = sale price − purchase price − expenses
Taxable gain = gain × taxable proportion
Capital gains income = taxable gain − long-term deduction
The ordinary taxable proportion is 100%.
A qualifying final high-value home uses the proportion above KRW 1,200,000,000.
Long-term deductions apply to positive gains; they do not increase the amount of a loss.
Annual settlement and local tax
Tax base = annual capital gains income − KRW 2,500,000 annual allowance
National tax = larger of combined basic tax and the tax by rate groups
Local income tax = national tax × 10%
The annual allowance is applied once, in disposal order.
National and local estimates discard fractions below one won.
The filing form’s 10-won end rounding, credits or relief, penalties and prepaid tax are excluded; these can create differences from an actual payment notice.
Adding independent per-home estimates can miss annual progressive taxation.
Applying the largest surcharge to every gain is also inappropriate when different regimes apply.
Under Income Tax Act Article 104(5), this model compares basic tax on the total tax base with tax calculated on the aggregated bases for identical statutory rate regimes.
Per-home details show income, while the annual cards show tax; the model does not invent a tax allocation back to individual homes.
2026 basic progressive rates and surcharges
For each bracket, multiply the tax base by the rate and subtract its progressive deduction.
A 24% marginal bracket does not mean that 24% of the gross gain is payable.
Expenses, long-term deductions, the allowance and the progressive deduction all affect the effective burden.
| Tax base (KRW) | Rate | Progressive deduction (KRW) |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 14,000,000 | 6% | 0 |
| Over 14,000,000 to 50,000,000 | 15% | 1,260,000 |
| Over 50,000,000 to 88,000,000 | 24% | 5,760,000 |
| Over 88,000,000 to 150,000,000 | 35% | 15,440,000 |
| Over 150,000,000 to 300,000,000 | 38% | 19,940,000 |
| Over 300,000,000 to 500,000,000 | 40% | 25,940,000 |
| Over 500,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 | 42% | 35,940,000 |
| Over 1,000,000,000 | 45% | 65,940,000 |
Check multi-home and short-term regimes
A regulated-area home sold while holding two homes generally adds 20 percentage points; three or more homes add 30 percentage points.
Long-term deductions are excluded when the multi-home surcharge applies.
Holding a home for less than one year gives a 70% short-term rate; one year to less than two gives 60%.
For a single taxable short-term disposal, compare that amount with the basic or surcharge calculation and use the larger amount.
Multiple taxable disposals in one year including a short-term home are withheld for specialist mixed-rate review.
Final-home exemption and long-term deductions
At and above KRW 1.2 billion
The ordinary final-home test requires one household holding one domestic home at sale, at least two years of ownership and, where required at acquisition, at least two years of residence.
When exemption is selected and conditions are met, a sale price at or below KRW 1,200,000,000 is exempt.
Above that amount, taxable gain = gain × (sale price − KRW 1,200,000,000) ÷ sale price.
Being the last home alone does not establish eligibility.
General deduction and Table 2
The general deduction begins at 6% for three completed ownership years, increasing by 2% per year to 30% at fifteen years.
For the ordinary final one-home case, at least three ownership years and two residence years permit 4% per ownership year plus 4% per residence year.
Each part is capped at 40%, for a total ceiling of 80%.
A high-value one-home case with less than two residence years uses the general deduction instead.
Turning off exemption does not automatically turn off the separately assessed long-term deduction.
Ownership is recalculated from acquisition to each scheduled sale date, so moving to the next year can change completed holding years.
Residence remains the entered completed-month value; only completed residence years count toward the deduction.
Conversion from a registered rental to a residence, inherited shares and changes of building use require additional rules outside the ordinary-case model.
Surcharge suspension and contract or permit transitions
The temporary multi-home surcharge exclusion for homes held at least two years ends with disposals through 2026-05-09.
Later transitional relief depends on more than the expected sale date.
Check the binding contract, documented deposit receipt and whether the underlying land requires a transaction permit.
A preliminary agreement is not a qualifying binding contract.
No permit required
A binding contract must be signed by 2026-05-09 with evidence of deposit receipt, and disposal must occur within four months of that contract, or six months in additional areas listed in the decree.
November 9 is not a universal deadline for every home.
An earlier contract can produce an earlier deadline.
Land transaction permit required
The application must be made by 2026-05-09, followed by actual permit approval, a binding sale contract and documented deposit receipt.
Disposal must be within four or six months of the contract.
If the contract is signed on or after 2026-05-10, an additional absolute cap applies: 2026-09-09 for four-month areas or 2026-11-09 for six-month areas.
An application without approval is insufficient for this calculation’s transitional exclusion.
Check the six-month area table in Decree Articles 167-3(1)(12-2) and 167-10, covering the additional 21 Seoul districts and specified cities or districts in Gyeonggi.
Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Yongsan and other applicable areas use the four-month condition.
The calculator does not look up an address to certify designation or transition dates.
Confirm disposal-time designation and regional eligibility from the official decree and your evidence.
Worked annual aggregation and year-split example
Assume no final-home exemption
Home A has a KRW 300,000,000 gain and a 20% general long-term deduction; B has a KRW 100,000,000 gain and a 10% deduction.
Their income amounts are KRW 240,000,000 and KRW 90,000,000.
Residence is zero months, exemption is disabled and completed ownership years are assumed unchanged after the split.
Same year
KRW 330,000,000 − KRW 2,500,000 gives a KRW 327,500,000 tax base.
At 40% less the KRW 25,940,000 progressive deduction, national tax is KRW 105,060,000.
Add local tax of KRW 10,506,000 for a total of KRW 115,566,000.
Different years
Annual national tax is KRW 70,310,000 for A and KRW 15,240,000 for B.
Including each year’s local tax gives KRW 94,105,000, a difference of KRW 21,461,000 from same-year sales.
Different holding years, laws or residence eligibility change this difference; it is not a promised fixed saving.
Taxable losses can offset same-year income under the same rate regime, without carryover into the following year in this model.
An exempt home’s loss does not offset another taxable home’s gain.
Losses involving different rates require the ordering and proportional rules of Decree Article 167-2, so those schedules are withheld.
If any schedule is pending, the overall minimum remains withheld rather than selecting a winner from only the supported rows.
Worked two-home sale-order example
Fictional A was acquired on 2016-10-15 for KRW 600,000,000 and sells for KRW 900,000,000, a KRW 300,000,000 gain.
B was acquired on 2021-10-15 for KRW 400,000,000 and sells for KRW 500,000,000, a KRW 100,000,000 gain.
Expenses are zero; both homes are outside regulated areas with no separate residence requirement, and the first sale date is 2026-10-15.
B → A
B receives the five-year 10% general deduction, leaving KRW 90,000,000 income and KRW 87,500,000 after the annual allowance.
National tax is KRW 15,240,000 and total tax including local income tax is KRW 16,764,000.
A is the final qualifying home sold below KRW 1,200,000,000 and is treated as exempt.
A → B
A receives the ten-year 20% deduction and has a KRW 237,500,000 tax base.
National tax is KRW 70,310,000 and total tax is KRW 77,341,000.
B is exempt as the final qualifying home; the order difference is KRW 60,577,000.
If A instead incurs the regulated-area 20-percentage-point surcharge when sold first, its deduction is excluded and total tax becomes KRW 167,871,000.
Leaving the larger-gain home until last helps in this example, but unmet residence conditions, high-value allocation or surcharges can reverse the result.
Do not assume that the smaller-gain home should always be sold first.
Compare the verified conditions and realistic dates of each property.
Sensitivity, practical uses and model limits
Retirement and a parent’s disposals
Compare the lowest-tax schedule with an order that releases cash earlier for retirement.
When entering a parent’s records, distinguish the parent’s household count from the child’s ownership.
Different legal owners are not combined as a single taxpayer in this calculator.
Year-end closing negotiations
Test moving one closing into the next year and compare the tax difference with loan interest, ownership costs and vacancy while waiting.
The date on a contract is not always the tax disposal date.
Check actual settlement and registration before using a year boundary in planning.
Sensitivity increases or reduces every expected sale price by the same entered percentage and recomputes orders and year allocations.
Purchase prices, expenses and residence months stay fixed.
If a price change creates an unsupported loss or mixed-rate case, the sensitivity minimum is withheld as well.
This is an assumption comparison, not a price forecast or a model of independently changing individual asking prices; edit each home’s price directly for those alternatives.
Scope and the next-year assumption
Supported scope is two or three ordinary domestic homes, one Korean-resident taxpayer and household, and all disposals within two years.
Joint shares, inherited or gifted homes, rental and temporary two-home exceptions, occupancy or presale rights, other property sales, additional purchases and tax relief require separate review.
2027 results freeze the 2026 rules and do not certify the law that will apply in 2027.
Future residence, holding expenses, price changes and sale feasibility are not automatically estimated.
Frequently asked questions
Is the annual allowance applied twice for two sales in one year?
No.
A single taxpayer receives one KRW 2,500,000 annual allowance for the relevant income category.
Separate years each have an allowance, but other property disposals may already use it or alter aggregation.
Does selling a home last automatically make it exempt?
No.
Check household-wide ownership, two-year holding and any required residence.
A qualifying sale above KRW 1,200,000,000 still has a taxable allocated portion; special rules and joint shares need separate verification.
Does current regulated status mean two years of residence are always required?
The ordinary exemption residence condition depends on acquisition-time designation and transitional exceptions.
Enter that requirement separately from disposal-time regulated status used for the surcharge.
Does a permit application by May 9 always allow disposal by November 9?
No.
Actual approval, a binding contract and deposit evidence are also required.
Check four or six months from the contract; contracts from May 10 onward also have September 9 or November 9 absolute caps.
How do sales on the same day work?
Zero spacing models the selected order on that date.
Check Decree Article 154(9) and make the order used in your actual filing consistent with the one used in the comparison.
Can a home with a loss simply be assigned zero tax?
A taxable loss under the same regime can offset other same-year taxable income.
Exempt losses are excluded; no inter-year loss carryover is applied.
Mixed-rate losses are pending specialist review.
Why is there no overall minimum when some schedules are pending?
A pending schedule could be more favorable than the supported ones.
Mixed-rate losses and same-year short-term combinations must be calculated before the complete set can establish a minimum.
Can the saved report be filed as a tax return?
The file records assumptions and annual planning estimates.
It is not a tax return or exemption approval.
Recheck acquisition, expenses, residence, contracts, permits and current law before filing.
Official evidence, update dates and next action
Official evidence was checked on 2026-10-04 through the National Law Information OPEN API.
Income Tax Act MST280405 is current from 2026-07-01; Decree MST290841 is effective 2026-10-01; Local Tax Act MST282559 is current from 2026-07-01.
Relevant tax-act provisions are effective 2026-01-01.
The deduction tables are in Income Tax Act Article 95; transitional dates come from the decree.
- Income Tax Act, Articles 55, 89, 92, 95, 102, 103, 104
- Decree, Articles 154, 159-4, 160, 167-2, 167-3, 167-10
- Local Tax Act, Article 103-3
- NTS capital gains tax rates
Recheck rates, the annual allowance, residence conditions, regulated-area designation and surcharge transitions after legal changes.
In particular, confirm the enacted 2027 rules and applicable area designation before a real 2027 sale.
Saving an estimate, filing tax, applying for a permit and completing the sale are separate actions that need their own confirmation.
Bring the order table to your tax review
Enter actual property records above and compare the minimum with a practical alternative.
Save the assumptions and results as TXT or print the table, then bring acquisition and residence records, expense receipts, contract deposits and permit evidence to your tax adviser.
After verification, agree on feasible closing dates with the broker and buyers.
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