863 Billion KRW Reclaimed Due to Last Year's Gangwon Land VAT Filing Omission and Others

2nd Place Industrial Bank 24.8 Billion KRW... 3rd Place Korea Expressway Corporation 10.5 Billion KRW Reclaimed

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Last year, Kangwon Land was fined 86.3 billion KRW for omitting the value-added tax (VAT) taxable base declaration, earning the dishonor of having the highest amount of additional tax assessed among public institutions.

According to data submitted by the National Tax Service (NTS) to Kim Doo-kwan, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the total additional tax assessed through tax audits of public institutions from 2016 to 2020 amounted to 908.2 billion KRW.

The NTS conducts tax audits on public institutions and general companies either regularly to verify the accuracy of declarations or irregularly when there are clear suspicions of tax evasion or other reasons stipulated by Article 81-6 of the Framework Act on National Taxes.

Analysis of the NTS’s public institution tax audit status data by Kim’s office revealed that about 25 public institutions were audited annually, with additional tax assessments exceeding 100 billion KRW each year.

Notably, in 2016, 506.5 billion KRW was additionally assessed, marking the highest amount of additional tax from public institution audits in the past four years.

Last year, the NTS conducted tax audits on 24 public institutions and assessed an additional tax amounting to 163.7 billion KRW.

Looking at individual public institution audit details, Kangwon Land was fined 86.3 billion KRW due to omissions in VAT taxable base declarations and improper allocation calculations of common input tax credits.

Following that, the Korea Development Bank was fined 24.8 billion KRW for bearing personnel costs of dispatched employees and recording asset costs as current expenses, and the Korea Expressway Corporation was fined 10.5 billion KRW for underreporting construction loan interest.

Assemblyman Kim emphasized, "Public institutions operated with taxpayers’ money must execute their budgets more transparently than private companies," adding, "The NTS should mandate the public disclosure of tax audit results for public institutions and impose stronger punitive measures, including designating habitual evaders as special management targets and intensifying tax audits."

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