Supreme Court Rules "National Tax Service Must Disclose Tax Damage Amount from Lone Star"... Minbyun Final Victory

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has ruled that the National Tax Service must disclose the amount of tax damage claimed by Lone Star in its investor-state dispute settlement (ISD) lawsuit against the Korean government.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Min Yu-sook) on the 14th upheld the lower court ruling partially in favor of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) in their appeal against the National Tax Service Commissioner’s refusal to disclose information.

The court stated, "In the arbitration case filed by Lone Star corporations against the Republic of Korea, the total amount of tax and withholding tax imposed on the applicants, which the applicants claim as damages, and the list of applicants are not the tax or withholding tax amounts per applicant. Therefore, even if disclosed, the individual tax or withholding tax amounts for the applicants as taxpayers cannot be known."

In August 2015, the government did not disclose specific amounts for each item in response to Minbyun’s information disclosure request regarding Lone Star’s claim of approximately 5 trillion won against the government.

At that time, the government only stated, "The amount is the difference between the sale price Lone Star could have obtained if the sale of Korea Exchange Bank had been conducted at an appropriate time and the actual profit Lone Star earned from the sale, plus interest, taxes imposed on Lone Star, and interest on those taxes."

In response, Minbyun demanded that the National Tax Service disclose detailed tax and withholding tax information. The National Tax Service decided not to disclose the information, citing concerns over taxpayer confidentiality and the ongoing ISD proceedings potentially affecting the trial.

In protest, Minbyun filed a lawsuit against the National Tax Service in January last year, demanding disclosure of the information.

The first trial court ruled in favor of Minbyun, stating, "Even if the requested information is disclosed, individual tax or withholding tax amounts cannot be known."

The National Tax Service appealed but the second trial court dismissed the appeal, affirming the first trial court’s ruling as valid and maintaining the original decision.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.