Lower loan interest and tax burden for small and medium-sized businesses and reduce electricity bills

Small business owners will receive special support for electricity bills of up to 200,000 won, and interest paid to small and medium-sized financial institutions will also be refunded up to 1.5 million won, significantly lowering their interest burden.

In addition, the standard for simplified value-added tax taxpayers will be raised from the current income of less than 80 million won to less than 104 million won.

There is also a way for small business owners to receive relief even if they sold alcohol and cigarettes to teenagers who lied about their age.

On the 8th, the government held the ‘People’s Livelihood Debate with the People: 10th, Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Business Owners Running Together, a Delightful People’s Livelihood Economy’ at the small business site in Seongsu-dong, Seoul.

At the People’s Livelihood Debate on this day, the government reported on the plan to realize a people’s livelihood economy in which small business owners, small and medium-sized businesses, and venture companies work together, under three detailed topics: ▲reducing the burden together, ▲the environment we create together, and ▲the future we grow together.

◆Special support for electricity bills for small business owners

The government provides special support for electricity bills of up to 200,000 won to ease the management burden of small business owners and the self-employed. 1.26 million small business owners with annual sales of 30 million won or less can apply starting the 21st and receive support early next month.

Up to 40% of the cost of purchasing or replacing air conditioners, refrigerators, etc. with high-efficiency devices is supported.

In addition, we are promoting support for low-interest refinancing loans (15,000 people) and interest refunds of up to 1.5 million won from small and medium-sized financial institutions (2.28 million people), thereby lowering the interest burden on small business owners and self-employed people.

For small business owners with medium to high credit ratings who are using high interest rate products of 7% or more, refinance loans that can be converted to long-term installments of up to 10 years and low interest rate products of 4.5% will be supported from the 26th of next month.

In addition, interest refunds of up to 1.5 million won for interest paid to small and medium-sized financial institutions (savings banks, mutual finance, etc.) for vulnerable small business owners will be provided starting from the 29th of next month.

The standard for simplified value-added tax taxpayers will also be raised from 80 million won to 104 million won, and 140,000 small business owners and self-employed people will benefit.

This year, it was decided to issue Onnuri gift certificates that can be used in traditional markets and shopping malls worth 5 trillion won, 1 trillion won more than last year, and to increase the number of affiliated stores to 250,000 by designating new alley-type shopping malls.

We will support up to 10 billion won for the pilot operation of the commercial district planner system and the development of local commercial district brands, working with the private sector and local governments to revive the region’s declining commercial districts.

The scale of support for employment insurance premiums that self-employed people pay to receive unemployment benefits when a business closes will be expanded from the existing maximum of 50% to 80%, and the employment insurance subscription system will be revamped in the first half of the year to enable one-stop application for employment insurance and insurance premium support. am.

The Yellow Umbrella Deduction, a representative deduction for small business owners, allows deductions to be paid only for reasons such as business closure or death, but has been expanded to include cases such as disaster, disease, and bankruptcy.

The tax burden is alleviated by changing the existing tax base imposed as other income to retirement income when paying deductions.

A revision of the Debtor Rehabilitation Act will be promoted in the first half of the year so that simplified rehabilitation procedures for small business income can be carried out quickly.

◆Exemption from administrative punishment when selling alcohol or cigarettes to minors who lied about their age

The government is amending the enforcement ordinances of three related laws, including the Youth Protection Act, Food Sanitation Act, and Tobacco Business Act, to prevent innocent small business owners and self-employed people from being unfairly harmed by youth who lied about their age to purchase alcohol and cigarettes.

It was decided to exempt business owners from administrative measures if it is confirmed through CCTV, etc. that they have verified their ID or that they have been assaulted or threatened, and also improve the existing excessive standards for business suspension.

When caught for the first time, the business suspension is changed from 2 months to 7 days.

In addition, we are promoting matching overseas SW manpower from India and Vietnam with small and medium-sized enterprises that are facing a serious manpower shortage due to recent difficulties in hiring Koreans, and expanding E-9 visas for non-professional foreign workers, so that 165,000 foreign workers this year will be employed in the restaurant, hotel and condominium industries along with existing manufacturing industries. We also plan to introduce it on a pilot basis.

To protect the technology of innovative startups, a new core technology imitation alert service will be established to strengthen prevention, and compensation liability will be increased by five times to increase the effectiveness of damage relief.

The Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act will also be enacted to support effective relief for the rights of small and medium-sized enterprises, and a revision of the Subcontracting Act will be promoted to enable dispute mediation even in cases where corrective measures have been taken for violations of the Subcontracting Act.

In order to establish the delivery price linking system in the field, the contract conclusion support project will be expanded from 50 to 1,000 companies, and an linking support headquarters dedicated to linking system training and consulting will be additionally designated in the first half of the year.

We plan to conduct a special ex officio investigation into the linkage system in the second half of the year to strictly crack down on illegal activities.

In order to strengthen win-win cooperation between large supermarkets and small business districts, a new win-win cooperation index for small business districts will be added to the win-win growth index evaluation of large corporations.

◆Quick investment of all KRW 1.6 trillion by fund of funds in the first quarter

The government will quickly invest 1.6 trillion won, the entire amount invested by the mother-of-funds fund this year, in the first quarter to expand the growth momentum of venture investment.

The mother fund jointly invests in the Startup Korea Fund, which is led by the private sector such as financial institutions and large corporations, and supports the attraction of overseas investment by promising domestic startups by creating a global fund of more than 1 trillion won and establishing a foreign VC connection program.

Related laws will also be revised to allow large corporations’ win-win cooperation funds to invest in venture funds and ease regulations on overseas investment by corporate venture capital (CVC).

In addition, ‘Korean-style Station-F’ (Global Startup Hub), a youth start-up space where global companies and young people and investors from around the world interact, will begin design and construction this year.

The revised Startup Support Act will be implemented in August to enable support for overseas start-ups that have substantial control over Koreans and have contributed to the Korean economy.

To support new industry startups entering the global market, we will expand global collaboration programs with leading domestic and overseas companies such as Samsung Electronics and Open AI.

The government is strengthening the capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises to respond to the external environment, such as digital transformation and carbon neutrality, in order to strengthen their response capabilities.

The private sector and the government will work together as a team to support customized digital transformation according to the capabilities of 25,000 manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises, and plans to strengthen the capabilities of technology suppliers will be prepared in the second half of the year to successfully establish digital transformation in the field.

We provide new support for carbon neutrality-related greenhouse gas reduction infrastructure projects (KRW 2.41 billion this year), such as the EU-CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment System).

In addition, we provide intensive support for R&D for challenging tasks and strengthen global R&D cooperation.

We will intensively support R&D to carry out challenging tasks such as the 12 national strategic technologies and carbon neutral core technologies, and operate the global R&D cooperation base established in Kendall Square, Boston, USA to enable global technological cooperation.

Inquiries: Planning and Innovation Officer of the Planning and Coordination Office of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (044-204-7344), Policy Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (044-215-4532), Residence Management Division of the Immigration and Foreigner Policy Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice (02-2110-4067), Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Mid-sized Enterprise Policy Division, Mid-sized Enterprise Policy Division (044-203-4361), Ministry of Employment and Labor Planning and Coordination Office Planning and Finance Officer (044-202-7028), Fair Trade Commission Competition Policy Bureau Competition Policy Division (044-200-4301), Financial Services Commission Financial Services Policy Bureau Financial Policy Division (02-2100-2861), Ministry of Government Legislation Planning and Coordination Director Planning and Finance Officer (044-200-6543)