Korean Tax Tribunal: The gift tax on Bitcoin transferred through a spouse's account must be re-investigated
The Korean Tax Tribunal recently made a re-investigation ruling on a dispute regarding the gift tax on Bitcoin. The case involves whether transferring Bitcoin through a spouse's overseas exchange account constitutes a gift, which has attracted widespread attention in the cryptocurrency tax community. The case shows that taxpayer A transferred 67 Bitcoins stored in a personal hardware cold wallet (Ledger) to avoid direct transfer to a domestic exchange due to the Travel Rule regulatory restrictions in South Korea, using spouse B's overseas exchange account for the transfer. The entire process took only 2 to 8 minutes, after which the Bitcoins were sold to purchase real estate.The tax authorities determined that this action constituted a gift between spouses and imposed a gift tax on A. A appealed, claiming that the Bitcoins were personal assets held since before 2014 and submitted a memorandum of understanding signed with the spouse—where it was agreed that if the Bitcoins appreciated, real estate would be purchased, and 13 Bitcoins would be gifted to the spouse as compensation. A argued that determining it as a gift solely based on the brief passage of funds through the spouse's account was a qualitative error.After review, the Tax Tribunal found that A failed to adequately submit key evidence such as the memorandum of understanding, gift contract, and photos of the hardware wallet during the tax investigation, leading to flaws in the investigation process. At the same time, the distribution method of 67 Bitcoins transferred to A's account and 13 Bitcoins retained under the spouse's name was consistent with A's statements. Based on this, the Tribunal ruled that a new investigation must be conducted regarding the actual ownership of the hardware wallet and the substantive ownership of the digital assets. This case is seen as a landmark case in South Korea's cryptocurrency tax practice, directly addressing the challenges of determining ownership of cold wallet assets and the tax classification of cross-account transfers.
