South Korean Lawmakers To Accept Political Donations In BTC

South Korean lawmakers will start accepting political donations in BTC according to Representative Lee Kwang-jae who aims to fuel his campaign by receiving BTC and ETH donations so let’s read more in today’s cryptocurrency news.

Lee Kwang-jae is a member of the ruling Democratic Party in South Korea who plans to receive campaign donations in digital assets and intends to issue non-fungible tokens as a receipt for these contributions starting from mid-January next year. According to the reports, the cryptocurrencies included in the initiative will be the two biggest by market cap which are BTC and ETH as well as a few local tokens and If realized Lee Kwang-Jae will become the first lawmaker in the Asian country to accept the digital assets for campaign finance:

“We are currently reviewing selection of local (virtual asset) wallet providers. We will review our wallet address on our blog, Facebook page, and YouTube channel in early January.”

Keeping in mind it is an experimental proejct, the lawmaker’s office said it intends to receive 10 million won worth of crypto with a 1 million won limit set for every contributor. The donated assets will be converted into cash at a local digital asset trading venue and they will be employed in accordance with the political finance regulations. Lee’s office warned that because of the increased volatility of the crypto industry, the actual value of the donation could be different when converted into fiat. This could result in tax deduction amounts that differ from people’s expectations when conducting year-end tax settlements.

 

Ever since the start of 2021, the governemnt of the East Asian country was looking to impose strict rules on the local digital asset ecosystem. One of them included slamming those that generate profits of $42,000 from crypto trading with a  20% tax and the legislation was supposed to go into effect from the start of 2022. A few months later, the South Korean lawmakers and the Democratic Party proposed a delay of the taxation policy and according to the lawmakers, the nation does not have a well-created plan to implement the taxing procedure.

Right after, the opposition party argued that postponing the legislation was necessary and the member of the opposition Cho Myoung-hee opined that it is not right to impose taxes first at a time when the legal definition of virtual currency is ambiguous.