Tax revenue up 13% in April amid stock market boom

Korea's tax revenue increased nearly 13 percent in April from a year earlier on the back of the recent bullish run in the stock market, data showed Friday. The government collected 55.2 trillion won ($36.8 billion) in taxes last month, compared with 48.9 trillion won posted a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Finance and Economy. The finance ministry attributed the sharp increase to securities transaction levies, which came to 1.3 trillion won in April, soaring from just 200 billion won posted a year earlier. The increase followed a bullish market fueled by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, with the transaction value of listed stocks reaching 1,449.4 trillion won in March, more than quadrupling from a year earlier. Starting this year, Korea began imposing a new 0.05 percent transaction tax on the main bourse, while the tax rate on the secondary market rose from 0.15 percent to 0.2 percent. Corporate tax revenue also jumped 21.2 percent on-year in April to 12.8 trillion won amid strong earnings by major chipmakers. Korea collected 9.7 trillion won in income tax in April, up 14