Monday, July 13, 2020

Why Did Trump Commute Stone's Sentence?

Maybe to keep Stone from spilling the beans on him, or writing a book?

Stone doesn't seem like a person who would go to jail willingly. 

Rich Koreans keep on buying up all the real estate and residential properties in Korea as they have been great investments in the past. The problem is they keep jacking up rents and prices. 

So, the government is raising residential property taxes to 6% for people who own 3 residences or more in certain neighborhoods where property prices have skyrocketed and worth over around $80 million, if I remember correctly.

Since the progressive party has a majority in the National Assembly, the bill to raise property taxes will definitely pass without any watering down from the conservative party. :)

I think most Koreans are in favor of the tax increase. I definitely am. Tax the hell out of speculators driving up prices and not paying a fair share of taxes.

I would be in favor of increasing property taxes on people with only one residential property, which includes me. 

$600,000 apartment, and I only pay about $400 a year in property tax, lucky me and maybe around ten million other Koreans. The appraisal value used by the government for tax purposes is about 40-50% lower than the market price.

I keep telling other Koreans that we, including filthy rich landowners, pay almost nothing in property taxes and that we should pay more. My rich acquaintances' aversion to such ideas, I understand, but even my middle class friends disagree with me. 

Hope, they start raising taxes on commercial property too, but that might cause rent increases, even though around 10% of commercial properties are vacant in downtown Seoul (estimated from all the "for rent" signs I see on buildings.).