Child Investors Multiply as More Parents Buy Stocks to Avoid Tax

The number of nominal stock investors under the age of 10 surpassed 110,000 last year, up 3.4 times from a year earlier.

According the Korea Securities Depository, the number of child investors stood at 113,014 in 2020, up a whopping 243.2 percent from the previous year. The figure jumped dramatically last year, even more than among 20-somethings (180.5 percent) or teenagers (144.7 percent) because it has become a popular tax dodge.

Parents mostly give their children stocks instead of cash gifts within tax exemption limits.

"Parents can gift up to W40 million every 10 years to kids under 18 without paying gift taxes," an industry insider said (US$1=W1,129). "An increasing number of them are buying promising stocks for their kids' future."