Monthly Rent Tax Credit in Korea: Who Qualifies and How Much

Korea's monthly rent tax credit lets tenant workers with gross salary of 80 million won or less claim back 15% or 17% of the rent they paid, on up to 10 million won of annual rent. At 55 million won or less the rate is 17%; between 55 and 80 million won it is 15%. Hit the cap and the maximum refund is 1.7 million won. What decides eligibility is not the size of your rent but the formal requirements — above all jeonip singo (resident registration at the rented address): miss it and you get nothing back even if everything else checks out.

Who qualifies — four requirements

According to the National Tax Service, the requirements come down to four. First, no homeownership: every member of your household must own no house as of December 31 of the tax year — buy a home mid-year and that whole year's rent is excluded. Second, income: gross salary of 80 million won or less (comprehensive income of 70 million won or less). Third, the dwelling: it must be national housing scale (85㎡ or smaller) or have an assessed value of 400 million won or less — meeting either one is enough, and residential officetels and gosiwon (micro dormitory rooms) count. Fourth, address registration: the address on the lease contract must match your resident registration.

The lease can be in your name or that of a dependent such as a spouse, and non-heads of household can also claim if they meet the requirements. A fixed-date stamp (hwakjeong-ilja) is not required — only the address match matters. For what each of these formalities actually protects, see the comparison of fixed-date stamps and resident registration. If you moved during the year, rent paid while your registration was in place at each home still qualifies.

What decides the credit is not the size of your rent but your address registration — if the contract and your resident registration differ, you get nothing back.

How much do you get back?

One formula: annual rent (capped at 10 million won) times your rate — 17% for gross salary up to 55 million won (comprehensive income up to 45 million won), 15% up to 80 million won. Plugging in typical cases:

Rent above 10 million won a year (roughly 830,000 won a month) does not enter the calculation. Note also that this is a tax credit subtracted from your computed tax: if your final tax due is smaller than the credit, you only benefit up to that amount, and the actual refund is settled against tax already withheld. If you are weighing a contract that converts part of a deposit into monthly rent, run it alongside the statutory cap on jeonse-to-monthly-rent conversion — converted rent qualifies too, as long as the requirements are met. As in the third row of the table, a worker earning 52 million won who pays 900,000 won a month gets 1.7 million won back — nearly two months of rent returned in a single settlement.

What changed from tax year 2024?

The current thresholds apply from tax year 2024, settled in early 2025. According to Taxwatch, the income ceiling rose from 70 to 80 million won and the rent cap from 7.5 to 10 million won a year. The assessed-value test was also relaxed from 300 to 400 million won — the National Tax Service notes the 300 million won standard applies to rent paid before 2022. The 1.7 million won maximum refund (10 million won × 17%) only became possible after this revision; under the old 7.5 million won cap the ceiling was 1,275,000 won, a gap of more than 400,000 won for the same rent.

How to claim — and the five-year window if you missed it

Three documents: a resident registration certificate, a copy of the lease contract, and proof of payment such as bank transfer receipts. Submit them with your company's year-end tax settlement; the landlord's consent or signature is not needed. If you have been paying in cash, switch to transfers or request cash receipts for housing rent through Hometax so a record exists — though the same rent cannot take both the cash-receipt income deduction and this tax credit.

If you missed the credit in past years, you can recover it through an amended return (gyeongjeong cheonggu) within five years of the statutory filing deadline — with the address registration and payment records in place, several years can be claimed at once.

Checklist

• Does your resident registration match the lease address? Rent paid before you registered is excluded
• Check the unit's size (85㎡ or less) or assessed value (400 million won or less) via the property register, building ledger and the official price lookup service
• Will your salary cross the 55 or 80 million won line this year? The rate (17%/15%) and eligibility hinge on it
• Are rent payments documented? Supplement cash payments by requesting rent cash receipts
• Any missed credits within the past five years? File an amended return on Hometax

References

• National Tax Service — Monthly rent tax credit
• Taxwatch — The expanded monthly rent tax credit