South Korea Value-Added Tax (부가가치세) standard rate
South Korea Value-Added Tax (부가가치세) standard rate is 10 percent, in force since 1 Jul 1977. Last checked against the official source on 20 Jul 2026.
Standard VAT rate under Article 30 of the Value-Added Tax Act, applied to supplies of goods and services and to imports.
| Current value | 10 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 1977-07-01 |
| Official source | 부가가치세법 (Value-Added Tax Act) Article 30 — statutory rate 10%; current consolidation as last amended by Act No. 21218 (promulgated 2025-12-23, in force 2026-01-01, no rate change); rate confirmed on National Tax Service page '부가가치세 세율' (모든 업종 10%) |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Single flat 10% standard rate, unchanged since VAT introduction on 1977-07-01 — no reduced rates. Zero-rating applies to exports and related supplies (Arts. 21-24); exemptions (면세) cover unprocessed foodstuffs, medical, education, finance/insurance and similar (Art. 26). Small 'simplified taxpayers' (간이과세자) instead pay 10% x industry value-added ratios of 15-40% — an administrative scheme, not separate statutory rates. The canonical statute URL (https://www.law.go.kr/법령/부가가치세법/제30조) was loaded 2026-07-20 but law.go.kr serves article text via JavaScript and returns only a title shell to plain fetchers — re-verification needs a headless browser or the law.go.kr DRF open API; amendment history was verified on the static revision-history popup (lsRvsDocListP.do, lsId=001571). December 2025 tax-package amendments to the VAT Act changed compliance provisions only, not the rate.
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/kr/vat
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/kr/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/kr/vatOther South Korea series: Bank of Korea Base Rate · Statutory interest (법정이율) · VAT registration threshold · National minimum wage (최저임금) · Public holidays · Consumer price inflation (소비자물가 상승률) · Corporate income tax (법인세) top rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax (종합소득세) schedule · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Thailand · Türkiye · United Arab Emirates · all 28