Standard Price of Country Club Membership Fee Released

A country club membership with a standard price of more than 800 million won has appeared on the market for the first time.

In addition, the standard prices of golf membership fees across the nation, including this fee, have soared 11 percent on average within six months.

The National Tax Service announced on July 29 that it would raise the standard price an average of 11 percent higher than the officially fixed price as of February 1 for 135 nationwide country clubs and 259 golf membership fees starting on August 1.

The rising rate marked the highest record since August 1 in 2002 (an 18.7 percent rise in comparison to the prior official fixed price).

The principle taxation standard for golf membership fees refers to the actual market price, or market price, while the standard price refers to a standard amount that imposes transfer income taxes, inheritance, and donation taxes in case of an unclear price. As the standard price goes up, the tax burden will rise accordingly.

Kim Gwang-jung, director of property taxes in the National Tax Service, explained, “The standard price of golf membership fees went up as five-day work week system has been widely applied to companies and the number of golfers was constantly increasing.”

The most expensive price recorded in this period was at Nambu Country Club located in Yongin City of Gyeonggi Province that newly announced a price above 810 million won. This amount marked the highest among the 38 times of standard price announcement that the National Tax Service has posted as membership fee since July 1983.

East Valley (660 million won) in Gwangju City of Gyeonggi Province and Lakeside (612 million won) in Yongin City followed.

“The membership fee indeed went up more than it did early this year, but we’ve been seeing a bearish trend during the recent two months due to a slackening economy,” Song Yong-kwon, sales manager of Ace Country Club Membership Exchange, said. “After Prime Minister Lee Hun-jae’s remarks on ‘authorizing new country clubs in large numbers,’ the purchasing trend contracted, and a continuous rise in prices seems unclear now.”

Ji-Wan Cha cha@donga.com