Lee's new chief of staff once sponsored an 80% rise in minimum inheritance deductions
Lim Kwang-hyun, named chief of staff on the 14th, sponsored a 2024 bill taking minimum inheritance deductions to 1.8 billion won from 1 billion. The reporting shows his view but no government proposal to raise the deductions.
The Investor · Invest desk
Under Lim's 2024 bill, the lump-sum inheritance deduction would rise to 800 million won from 500 million won, and the minimum spousal deduction to 1 billion won from 500 million won, for combined deductions of 1.8 billion won.
Inheritance deductions, before and under Lim's 2024 bill In million won
| Item | Value | Claim |
|---|---|---|
| Lump-sum deduction, before bill | 500 million won | 2 |
| Lump-sum deduction, under bill | 800 million won | 2 |
| Spousal minimum, before bill | 500 million won | 2 |
| Spousal minimum, under bill | 1,000 million won | 2 |
What happened
- Lee named him on the 14th, 23 days after predecessor Kang Hoon-sik publicly offered to resign from the post on Sept. 21.
- At a parliamentary audit on the 13th, Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Kwang-jae asked Lim whether deductions unchanged for nearly 30 years needed updating.
- The government's August tax revision plan caps the long-term holding deduction for capital gains at 2 billion won in 2028 and 1 billion won from 2029.
- Lim has called the 1 billion won ceiling the policy likely to have the greatest impact on the market.
Why it matters
- constraint A chief of staff can press for inheritance relief but the economic policy bureau is the control tower, so Lim's preference has to travel through other offices before it becomes a tax change.
- decision The administration now has an insider arguing that tighter taxes on expensive homes go down easier with relief attached, so the next real estate package forces a choice on whether to pair them.
- exposure Owners of ultra-expensive homes in places like Gangnam are the group a ceiling on the amount hits hardest, because a residency test is one they can pass by living in the house.
The 2024 bill is easier to size by subtraction. Raising the lump-sum deduction to 800 million won from 500 million adds 300 million. Raising the spousal minimum to 1 billion won from 500 million adds 500 million. Together they lift the combined minimum from 1 billion won to the 1.8 billion won in the bill. That is 800 million won more, or 80% [2][12][13]. The bill's aim, as en.sedaily.com describes it, was to reflect that rising home prices and consumer prices had pushed a levy once seen as aimed at the wealthy onto middle-class households [3].
His position held when he moved to the tax agency. At the audit on the 13th he said, "I fully agree with the intent of your remarks" [5]. Sources told en.sedaily.com that Lim says privately the expansion is not a tax cut for the rich but a policy to ease the burden on middle-income households [15]. His reasoning is that the very wealthy care more about a lower top rate or the family business succession deduction [16].
In our view the useful thing to track is sequencing, specifically the sequencing Lim is said to regret. According to the same sources, he has expressed regret that pursuing the deduction expansion alongside the current property tax overhaul could have softened the backlash against tighter taxation of real estate [17]. The tightening side needs no new decision, because it is already scheduled. The ceiling on the long-term holding deduction halves, a 50% cut, between 2028 and 2029 [14]. The new chief of staff has spent years arguing that tightening like this should come with deduction relief.
First, the job is coordination. Kang Hoon-sik said at the briefing that Lim "will reflect the voices of the people more strongly in state affairs and accelerate policy results through cooperation among the party, the government and the presidential office" [11]. Second, Lim holds that tax and financial regulations alone have limits in resolving home prices and that the fundamental solution is expanding housing supply [10]. His influence inside the building may go to supply first. Third, the deduction bill was a lawmaker's bill, and Lim's agreement came as an answer at an audit. The report does not say whether the government plans to move on the deductions.
The test is the next government tax proposal. If it tightens property taxes again and leaves both deductions at 500 million won, the pairing story is wrong, whatever Lim thinks.
What to watch
- Whether the 2028 and 2029 schedule for the holding-deduction cap survives unchanged in the legislation that follows the August plan.
- Whether the Presidential Office under Lim puts a housing supply measure ahead of any tax change, given his view that supply is the fundamental fix.
- Whether Democratic Party lawmakers such as Lee Kwang-jae, who raised the 30-year-old thresholds at the 13th audit, table a new deduction bill.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
President Lee Jae-myung on the 14th named National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Kwang-hyun as presidential chief of staff, 23 days after Kang Hoon-sik publicly offered to resign from the post on Sept. 21.
- [2]
In 2024, as a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker, Lim was lead sponsor of a bill to raise the lump-sum inheritance deduction to 800 million won from 500 million won and lift the minimum spousal deduction to 1 billion won from 500 million won; combined, the two measures would have expanded deductions to 1.8 billion won.
- [3]
The bill's aim was to reflect that rising home prices and consumer prices have pushed the inheritance tax burden, once seen as a levy on the wealthy, onto middle-class households.
- [4]
At a parliamentary audit of the National Tax Service on the 13th, Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Kwang-jae asked Lim whether the spousal inheritance deduction and the lump-sum deduction, both largely unchanged for nearly 30 years, needed updating.
- [5]
Lim replied at that audit: "I fully agree with the intent of your remarks."
- [6]
The tax revision plan the government announced in August called for restructuring the long-term holding deduction around actual residence and capping the deduction at 2 billion won in 2028 and at 1 billion won from 2029.
- [7]
Lim has described the imposition of a 1 billion won ceiling on the long-term holding deduction for capital gains tax as the policy likely to have the greatest impact on the market.
- [8]
Tighter residency requirements can be met by actually living in the home, but a ceiling on the deduction amount can directly affect decisions by owners of ultra-expensive homes in areas such as Seoul's Gangnam district on whether to sell.
- [9]
The Presidential Office's policy bureau serves as the control tower for economic policy, while the chief of staff sits close to the president and can offer political advice on the full range of state affairs.
- [10]
Lim holds the view that tax and financial regulations alone have limits in resolving the problem of home prices, and that the fundamental solution is expanding housing supply.
- [11]
At the presidential office briefing, Kang Hoon-sik said that because Lim has experience across both the National Assembly and the government, he "will reflect the voices of the people more strongly in state affairs and accelerate policy results through cooperation among the party, the government and the presidential office."
- [12]
The 2024 bill would have raised the combined minimum deductions by 800 million won, from 1,000 million to 1,800 million won.
- [13]
An 800 million won rise on a 1,000 million won combined minimum is an 80% increase.
- [14]
The cap on the long-term holding deduction falls by 50% between 2028 (2 billion won) and 2029 (1 billion won).
- [15]
According to sources, Lim has told people around him that expanding inheritance deductions is not a tax cut for the rich but a policy to ease the burden on middle-income households.
- [16]
The reasoning is that holders of very large fortunes are more interested in lowering the top rate or in the family business succession deduction, while wider deductions give practical relief to middle-class households whose inheritance tax bills have grown along with home prices.
- [17]
Lim is said to have expressed regret in particular that pursuing the expansion of inheritance deductions alongside the current overhaul of property taxes could have softened the backlash against tighter taxation on real estate.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- en.sedaily.comLee Taps Tax Chief Lim Kwang-hyun as New Chief of Staff
2 articles · October 14, 2026
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