[News Today] Parent-child property gifting rising

[LEAD]
The National Tax Service is launching a full review of property gifts in Seoul's high-priced districts including the so-called 'Gangnam 4' areas. Officials are looking into whether families have been using loopholes to gift properties to their children.

[REPORT]
The overall level of price hikes in Seoul apartments has eased for the second week.

But prices in the four affluent districts in Seoul's Gangnam area rose more than the city's overall average.

This is why more parents are donating properties to their children.

Go Gyung-hee / Tax accountant
Donation inquiries spiked in the second half. For parents, it's a waste to sell properties and better to give them to their children.

From January to October, there were 7,708 cases of aggregate building donations in Seoul.

Among them, 2,077 cases were in the four Gangnam districts and the three districts of Mapo, Yongsan and Seongdong-gu, also known together as the Mayongseong area.

It's the largest number since the bullish market of 2022.

The National Tax Service believes most of these donations are carried out with ulterior motives.

For instance, an apartment priced at two billion won or some 1.3 million US dollars had a one billion won loan.

The mother gifted the home including the loan to her child.

The child paid a donation tax only for one billion won, excluding the value of the debt.

But this is suspected to be a part of a larger scheme.

The child did pay off the debt but the mother provided the child with full living expenses.

Another common trick is marking the appraised value lower than the market price.

Oh Sang-hoon / Nat'l Tax Service
It's the first time we are inspecting all cases in areas where donations are concentrated.

The tax agency conducted a similar survey three years ago when the number of property donations was at their highest.

The key point is whether such inspections actually help ease home prices but the agency has not disclosed taxation results.

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