Ruling Saenuri Party Rep. Na Seong-lin submitted a bill Sunday to revise the Income Tax Law to fortify taxation on aggregate financing income and stock transfer margins.

The bill calls for the lowering of the standard amount subject to aggregate financing income tax to 20 million won ($18,000) from current 40 million won.

It also calls for more people to be subjected to stock transfer margin tax, expanding coverage from the current largest shareholder holding 3 percent or more shares worth 10 billion won or more in total, to those holding 2 percent or more shares worth 7 billion won in total.

The revision is in line with the Saenuri Party’s pledges made in the April 11 general elections. The traditionally conservative party had promised to secure finances for welfare policies by beefing up the taxation on excessive capital gains rather than by increasing taxation on earned income.

Na explained that as of 2010, the number of those earning between 20 million and 40 million of financial income accounted for 0.3 to 0.4 percent of the population but their combined earnings accounted for 13 percent to 15 percent of total. Na said the fortified taxation will lead to a surge in tax revenue by 7.36 trillion won during the following five years.

Na also submitted a revision to the Act on Restriction of Special Taxation to raise the minimum tax rate for large conglomerates by 1 percentage point to 15 percent.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)