Democratic lawmaker pushes bill to extend K-content tax credits to games, music, publishing

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Gwang-jae, who represents Hanam-gap in Gyeonggi Province, said Tuesday he had introduced a bill to amend the Restriction of Special Taxation Act that would extend production and investment tax credits — currently limited to video content — to three additional sectors: games, music and publishing.

The bill aims to improve tax equity across the content industry and create a stable production and investment environment for K-content as a whole, including games, music and publishing.

Under current law, according to Lee, tax credits apply only to the production costs of video content — films, broadcast programs and OTT — and to investments made through specialized cultural industry companies that produce such content.

Games, music and publishing have been excluded from those benefits despite being core pillars of K-content and widely used as source intellectual property for a broad range of derivative works. The exclusion has consistently drawn calls to address the tax imbalance across content sectors.

In publishing, a special tax reduction regime for small and medium-sized enterprises exists, but its scope and practical effect are limited. Industry voices have said direct support for production costs that creators can actually feel is urgently needed.

The bill's centerpiece is renaming and expanding the existing "video content production cost tax credit" into a "cultural content production cost tax credit." Newly eligible categories would include publications under the Publishing and Print Industry Promotion Act, games under the Game Industry Promotion Act, and phonograms, digital music files, music videos and digital music video files under the Music Industry Promotion Act.

The bill also broadens the investment tax credit for specialized cultural industry companies — previously limited to video content producers — to cover cultural content producers across games, music and publishing, aiming to attract greater private capital investment into a wider range of content.

"In an environment where the boundaries between content types are dissolving, active investment that supports bold creative risks is more important than ever," Lee said. "We will tear down the tax barriers between sectors and expand the institutional foundation to strengthen the competitiveness of the entire K-content ecosystem."