South Korea requires app-market operators to report brokered domestic sales to the NTS from 1 July 2025

What changed in detail

Presidential Decree No. 35353, promulgated on 28 February 2025, amended the Enforcement Decree of the Value Added Tax Act. Most of it took effect on promulgation; the app-market rule took effect on 1 July 2025 (addendum Article 1, proviso).

• Article 121(2), app-market operators. Article 75(1)5 of the VAT Act lets the decree name further businesses that must submit data on sales they act as agent for, broker or settle. The rewritten Article 121(2) names two: bulletin-board operators that broker supplies and are designated by the National Tax Service, and app-market operators under Article 2(13) of the Telecommunications Business Act. The statement of reasons says the aim is to cross-check the mobile-content sales of telecommunications businesses. It applies to sales brokered or settled on or after 1 July 2025 (addendum Article 4).
• Article 104-2, ad-hoc assessment. It defines the “other grounds” for ad-hoc VAT assessment (수시부과) under VAT Act Article 57-2 by reference to Article 103(1): frequent moves of business place, a business place in an area where such moves are frequent, and suspended or closed businesses, among others.
• Articles 69(21) and 72(9), demergers. Between the split date in the plan and registration, the surviving or new company that takes over a supply may issue or receive the tax invoice for the dissolving company.

What it means

All three provisions are still in force; the consolidated decree current from 1 April 2026 carries Article 121(2)2 and Article 104-2 unchanged.

For app stores, this is a data duty, not a tax: the operator does not become liable for the developer’s VAT, but the National Tax Service now receives the sales figures to match against what developers declare. It runs alongside Law No. 20776, which from the same date extended the reporting duty to foreign platforms (kr-foreign-platform-reporting-2025). Article 104-2 completes the ad-hoc assessment power created by Law No. 20614 (kr-animal-blood-exemption-2024).