Last Year, National Tax Service Lost 400 Billion KRW in Tax Appeal Lawsuits... Petition Acceptance Rate Maintains at 20% Range

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Last year, the amount for which the National Tax Service (NTS) lost in administrative lawsuits filed by taxpayers disputing taxation fell to less than half of the previous year. However, the loss rate remained at a similar level of around 11% for the fifth consecutive year.

According to the confirmation hearing materials for Kim Daeji, nominee for Commissioner of the NTS, submitted by the NTS to Rep. Yang Hyangja of the Democratic Party on the 17th, there were 1,421 finalized cases last year among lawsuits filed by taxpayers disputing tax assessments, of which the state lost entirely or partially in 163 cases (11.4%).

In terms of judgment amounts, the total amount adjudicated was 2.0784 trillion KRW, of which the amount the NTS lost was 419.7 billion KRW (20.2%).

The amount lost by the NTS decreased somewhat from 626.6 billion KRW in 2015 to 545.8 billion KRW in 2016, then exceeded 1 trillion KRW for two consecutive years at 1.096 trillion KRW in 2017 and 1.0624 trillion KRW in 2018, but fell to less than half last year.

As one of the tax objection procedures, the acceptance rate of 'tax appeals'?where taxpayers file an objection to the Tax Tribunal after receiving a tax notice and the appeal is accepted?remained in the mid-20% range last year. The acceptance rates were 26.0% in 2015, 24.1% in 2016, 27.3% in 2017, 25.6% in 2018, and 26.6% in 2019, maintaining the 20% range annually.

In his confirmation hearing response materials, nominee Kim Daeji stated, "The NTS will strengthen pre-assessment verification from the taxation stage to induce lawful taxation in order to reduce the acceptance rates of appeals and losses in administrative lawsuits, and will continuously enhance litigation capabilities regarding tax objections to ensure that just tax assessments are maintained."

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