Gov`t eyes tax breaks to promote job sharing

SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- The government plans to provide tax benefits to
companies introducing a job sharing scheme in order to ease job losses amid a
deepening economic slump, officials said Thursday.
The tax incentive comes as the local job market is deteriorating at a
faster-than-expected pace. On Wednesday, the nation reported that it lost 103,000
jobs last month from a year earlier, the sharpest fall in more than five years.
Under the plan, companies will have around 50 percent of the reduced salaries of
existing employees recognized as expenses if they retain payrolls instead of
firing workers.
In a separate move, the government is also considering temporarily lowering
income taxes on severance payments this year to ease the tax burden on the
nation's growing number of jobless.
On his first day as finance minister Tuesday, Yoon Jeung-hyun unveiled dire job
market outlooks, saying that around 200,000 positions will be lost this year as
the economy will contract 2 percent, the first minus growth in more than a
decade.
Last month, President Lee Myung-bak proposed that companies promote job sharing
and the finance ministry has been delving into diverse tax breaks to encourage
its introduction in the private sector.
Meanwhile, to bolster the nation's sluggish construction sector, the government
also seeks to halve taxes on capital gains earned from the sale of a house within
five years of its purchase.
The tax break will apply for one year to unsold homes in the suburbs surrounding
Seoul, sources said.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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