A tax-related notice is posted at a real estate agency in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Tuesday. Last year's comprehensive real estate tax rose for the second consecutive year, surpassing 1.3 trillion won. [Yonhap]
A tax-related notice is posted at a real estate agency in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Tuesday. Last year's comprehensive real estate tax rose for the second consecutive year, surpassing 1.3 trillion won. [Yonhap]

The top 10% of comprehensive real estate taxpayers accounted for about 4.24 trillion won — roughly 87% of the total tax assessed last year.

Among individual taxpayers subject to the levy, those aged 60 and older made up more than half of both the headcount and the total amount paid. Analysts attribute the pattern to retirement-age households holding their wealth primarily in real estate rather than financial assets.

According to the National Tax Service's national tax statistics portal, the total comprehensive real estate tax assessed last year — covering both land and housing for individuals and corporations combined — reached 4.86 trillion won ($3.5 billion).

Of that, the top 10% of taxpayers were assessed 4.24 trillion won, or 87.3% of the total. Analysts say the progressive rate structure of the tax means the burden rises sharply for higher-bracket payers. The top 10%'s share was down 0.9 percentage points from 88.2% in 2024.

Taxpayers ranked between the 10th and 20th percentiles paid 259.4 billion won, accounting for 5.3% of the total. Those in the 20th–30th percentile range accounted for 2.8%, the 30th–40th for 1.7%, and the 40th–50th for 1.1%. All lower brackets held a share below 1%.

A pronounced skew toward older taxpayers was evident in the age breakdown. Last year, 548,177 individuals paid the comprehensive real estate tax, with total assessed amounts reaching 1.32 trillion won. Of those, 284,950 taxpayers — 52.0% of the individual total — were aged 60 or older, including 153,543 in their 60s and 131,407 aged 70 and above. The amount paid by taxpayers 60 and older came to 753 billion won, or 57.1% of all individual comprehensive real estate tax collected.

The per-person average was also higher among older taxpayers. The overall average for individual taxpayers was about 2.41 million won, while those aged 60 and older averaged 2.64 million won — 230,000 won more.

Analysts say the concentration of retirement-age wealth in real assets such as real estate, rather than financial instruments, is driving the disproportionate share of the tax burden falling on older taxpayers.

A total of 363 taxpayers under the age of 20 were assessed the comprehensive real estate tax last year. They paid a combined 700 million won, averaging 1.93 million won per person.

Among taxpayers in their 20s, 1,926 people paid a combined 4.9 billion won, averaging 2.57 million won each.


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com