South Korean officials will meet with five major crypto-asset exchanges as a new bill proposes postponing the tax start date from 2027 to 2029.

South Korea’s crypto-asset tax policy, which has already been delayed three times, may be postponed once again. According to the Yonhap News Agency, senior financial officials are expected to meet with representatives of crypto-asset exchanges on Tuesday, amid growing calls to delay the tax ahead of its planned introduction next January.

The policy consultation will include representatives from five exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX, and Gopax—as well as leaders of the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA). The government is expected to be represented by Kwon Dae-young, First Vice Minister of Finance and Economy, and Yoo Young-jun, Director-General for Digital Finance Policy at South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC). The presence of a vice-minister-level official indicates that Seoul is considering the issue at a high policy level, not merely as a technical matter.

South Korea’s plan to tax crypto assets has long faced numerous obstacles. Regulators have postponed it three times, most recently pushing the start of taxation to 2027. The main reasons are political disagreements and opposition from the industry, centering on the readiness of exchanges and the tax threshold.

Industry points to infrastructure gaps

Industry representatives continue to argue that conditions are not yet ready for implementation. Speaking to Yonhap on Sunday, a representative of an exchange said that trading regulations remain incomplete while the time available to prepare the necessary infrastructure is shrinking. According to the representative, standards for different types of transactions have yet to be clearly established, and “the parties share the view that the start of taxation should be postponed.”

Pressure in the National Assembly is also mounting. On Friday, Park Min-gyu, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, introduced a bill proposing that taxation be postponed until January 1 of the second year after South Korea begins exchanging data under the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). CARF is a framework that enables tax authorities in different countries to automatically share information on cross-border crypto-asset transactions, helping prevent investors from moving assets overseas to evade tax obligations.

Since the first data exchange under CARF is expected to take place in 2027, taxation under Park’s proposal would begin in 2029—two years later than under the current plan. This approach ties tax collection to the capacity to monitor international data, thereby addressing some concerns about enforcement.

Tuesday’s meeting is therefore seen as an important test of the South Korean government’s position. The outcome of the consultation will show whether Seoul will stick to the 2027 timeline or continue to yield to pressure from the industry and the National Assembly, with little time left before January.