South Korea lowers the mandatory e-tax-invoice threshold for sole proprietors to KRW 80 million from 1 July 2024
This page records one dated change. For the rules in South Korea as they stand today, see the South Korea guide →
- Jurisdiction
- South Korea
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- E-invoicing
- Status
- In force
- Impact
- FYI
- Announced
- 1 July 2024
- Effective
- 1 July 2024
- Instrument
- KR-ENFORCEMENT-DECREE-33271
- Authority
- 법제처 국가법령정보센터 (Ministry of Government Legislation, Republic of Korea)
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Individual business operators (개인사업자) whose prior-year supply value per place of business, including tax-exempt supplies, is KRW 80 million or more.
No action — monitoring only.
In force from 1 July 2024, the mandatory electronic tax invoice (전자세금계산서) threshold for individual business operators fell from KRW 100 million to KRW 80 million in prior-year supply value per place of business (including tax-exempt supplies). Article 68(1) of the VAT Enforcement Decree (Presidential Decree No. 33271, 28 February 2023) set the KRW 80 million figure; the addendum to that decree temporarily overrode it to KRW 100 million for 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, so the actual 80 million threshold applied from 1 July 2024 onwards. Once a business qualifies, the obligation continues even if supply falls below the threshold in a later year.
What changed in detail
Presidential Decree No. 33271, made on 28 February 2023, lowered the threshold; the KRW 80 million figure has been in force from 1 July 2024. From that date an individual business operator in South Korea must issue electronic tax invoices (전자세금계산서) once its prior-year supply value of goods and services per place of business, including tax-exempt supplies, reaches KRW 80 million. Until 30 June 2024 the threshold was KRW 100 million.
The KRW 80 million figure is in Article 68(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Value Added Tax Act, as amended by Presidential Decree No. 33271 of 28 February 2023. That decree’s addendum phased it in. Article 3(1) applies the amended Article 68 to supplies from 1 July 2023, measured on 2022 supplies. Article 3(2) then reads “80 million won” as “100 million won” for the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. When that window closed, the KRW 80 million threshold applied as written. The decree’s statement of reasons on law.go.kr describes the same two steps: KRW 100 million from 1 July 2023, widened to KRW 80 million from 1 July 2024.
Article 68(1) also keeps a business in scope once it has qualified: the definition includes a sole proprietor whose prior-year supply value later falls below KRW 80 million. The consolidated Enforcement Decree in force from 1 April 2026 (Presidential Decree No. 36133) still sets the threshold at KRW 80 million.
What it means
This change is still in force. The consolidated decree on law.go.kr, current from 1 April 2026, carries the KRW 80 million threshold unchanged.
The detail that catches sole proprietors is the one-way door. Crossing KRW 80 million in one year brings a place of business into mandatory e-tax invoicing, and a later dip below the figure does not take it out. The test is also per place of business and counts exempt supplies, so a proprietor with mostly exempt sales can be in scope without realising it. A business that crossed KRW 80 million in 2023 has had to issue e-tax invoices since 1 July 2024.
Proof
제68조제1항 및 같은 조 제2항 본문의 개정규정에도 불구하고 2023년 7월 1일부터 2024년 6월 30일까지는 같은 개정규정 중 “8천만원”을 “1억원”으로 보아 같은 개정규정을 적용한다.Notwithstanding the amended provisions of Article 68(1) and the main text of paragraph (2), from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 “80 million won” in those amended provisions shall be read as “100 million won”. (Addendum Art. 3(2), Presidential Decree No. 33271)
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