56,085 High-Amount and Habitual Tax Delinquents Owe 51 Trillion Won in National Taxes, Only 3.2% Collected

Yang Hyang-ja Lawmaker: "List Disclosure Effect Insufficient... Effective Measures Must Be Devised"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Although the national taxes owed by high-amount and habitual tax delinquents have exceeded 51 trillion won, the collection rate has been minimal.

According to the 'Status of Disclosure of High-Amount and Habitual Tax Delinquents and Collection Performance' data received from the National Tax Service and disclosed by Yang Hyang-ja, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, since the related system was implemented in 2004 until last year, the list included a total of 56,085 high-amount and habitual tax delinquents.

The number of people by delinquency amount bracket is distributed as follows: ▲20 million to less than 50 million won - 22,335 people ▲50 million to less than 100 million won - 20,886 people ▲100 million to less than 300 million won - 10,302 people ▲300 million to less than 500 million won - 1,391 people ▲500 million to less than 1 billion won - 774 people ▲1 billion to less than 10 billion won - 392 people ▲10 billion won or more - 5 people.

Among them, 23,090 high-amount and habitual tax delinquents have paid at least part of their delinquent taxes, and the cumulative collection amount was only 1.6491 trillion won, corresponding to 3.2% of the delinquent amount. Since one delinquent person paying their delinquent taxes over multiple years is counted as one collection per year, the actual number of payers is less than the cumulative collection number of 23,090.

Well-known high-amount and habitual tax delinquents include former Shindonga Group Chairman Choi Soon-young (107.3 billion won delinquent), former Hansol Vice Chairman Cho Dong-man (71.4 billion won), former JY Development CEO Joo Soo-do (57 billion won), Yoo Seom-na, eldest daughter of former Semo Group Chairman Yoo Byung-eun who died while on the run (11.1 billion won), and former President Chun Doo-hwan (3.1 billion won). The disclosure criteria for the National Tax Service's high-amount and habitual tax delinquent list expanded from "10 billion won or more delinquent for 2 years or more" in 2004 to "2 billion won or more delinquent for 1 year or more" in 2017.

Rep. Yang emphasized, "It is difficult to expect improvement in the collection performance of high-amount and habitual tax delinquents' delinquent amounts by merely disclosing the list," and added, "The National Tax Service must devise effective measures to increase the collection rate of high-amount and habitual tax delinquents in order to realize fair taxation."

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