The Internal Revenue Service has launched an intense asset hunt for more than 550 high-debt taxpayers who used unconventional methods to hide their wealth.
They were found to have falsified real estate registrations to avoid seizure, won the lottery and hid their winnings in family accounts.
Reporter Lee Seung-hoon reports.
[Report]
A total of 557 high-value tax defaulters were selected by the National Tax Service for intensive property tracking this time.
The main targets are people who are able to pay taxes, but hide their wealth in unusual ways and enjoy a wealthy lifestyle.
One builder was found to have entered into false debt agreements with family members and placed mortgages on his home and commercial property to avoid foreclosure after a tax investigation.
Another real estate landlord was found to have gifted his home to his children and divided ownership of a factory building to avoid capital gains tax.
The National Tax Service believes this was done to take advantage of the difficulty of foreclosing on co-owner shares.
In one case, a high-level tax delinquent won a lottery ticket worth billions of won and cashed out the winnings or transferred them to a family member’s account to avoid paying the previously imposed taxes, the NTS said.
[Kim Dong-il/Korea National Tax Service, Director of Tax Legal Affairs: 먹튀검증“We are collecting various property information such as real estate registration data and conducting planning analysis, and using big data to identify the living conditions of tax delinquents and the property details of cohabiting family members…”]
The NTA plans to collect unpaid taxes by intensively tracking down their hidden assets, and take additional measures such as criminal prosecution for malicious tax defaulters.
In total, the NTS collected or secured more than 2.5 trillion won in unpaid taxes last year alone through intensive investigations of high-value taxpayers.
I’m Lee Seung-hoon of KBS News.