Law passed but implementation delayed until 2027. Following numerous political debates, the South Korean government has postponed the application of its cryptocurrency tax to January 1, 2027. For the 2026 calendar year, South Korea remains a completely tax-exempt zone for crypto capital gains for individuals.

However, it is crucial to start tracking and structuring your transactions on Waltio as early as 2026 to consolidate your purchase prices (cost basis). Without this history, you risk being heavily taxed on the totality of your funds when the law comes into effect in 2027.

This guide explains the transition to the new South Korean tax system (NTS) and how to set up your account to be ready.

Throughout 2026, you can buy, sell, and exchange your cryptocurrencies without paying capital gains tax to the National Tax Service (NTS).

As of January 1, 2027: The law provides for a global tax of 22% on capital gains related to virtual assets (composed of a 20% income tax and a 2% local tax). The tax will be calculated on the difference between your selling price and your purchase price. Hence the vital importance of declaring all your 2026 purchases so as not to have an acquisition price considered as zero (0) by the tax authorities in 2027!

The future South Korean law will consider the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another (e.g., selling Bitcoin to buy Ethereum) as a taxable event. However, in 2026, this rule is suspended.

To ensure rigorous and exhaustive accounting tracking, Waltio considers all exchange operations as taxable by default.

Your action for 2026: Since 2026 is tax-exempt in South Korea, you can adapt this default setting. To ensure your report reflects the fiscal neutrality of this transition year, you must go to your Waltio space and change the status of each Crypto-to-Crypto exchange operation to "Non-taxable".

The advantage? The software will not calculate any immediate capital gain on these intermediate trades and will correctly carry forward the value of your initial investment until the final sale. You will thus build a solid cost basis for the 2027 law.

The treatment of income from decentralized finance (DeFi), mining, or staking is currently being studied by the NTS to be taxed as ordinary income in the future regulation.

To simplify your overall accounting tracking on the platform, Waltio applies a specific default methodology:

Practical consequence: Taxation is deferred. It is only when you decide to sell these tokens (for another crypto or fiat) that the operation will be calculated. Since the acquisition price is 0, the entire amount of the disposal will be considered a capital gain.

Want to account for this income upon receipt? If you wish to establish a real purchase price for these tokens today (to reduce your capital gain upon resale in 2027), a manual process is required on Waltio. You will need to individually modify each passive gain transaction to provide its acquisition price (the market price of the token on the exact day of receipt).

In normal times, the following transactions trigger the capital gains calculation:

Although no tax is due in 2026 on these operations, Waltio will calculate your capital gains or losses to provide you with clear metrics on your portfolio performance.

Disclaimer: This guide is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Legislation surrounding digital assets in South Korea is particularly unstable. Waltio does not provide tax or legal advice. We strongly recommend consulting a tax expert in South Korea to validate your personal situation.