Seo Eun-hee, Seocho District Mayor, First Local Government Head to Receive 'Taxpayer Rights Award'

Taxpayers Association 9th Taxpayer Rights Awards Ceremony Honors Winners in Three Government Categories

Chairman Hong Ki-yong and Seocho District Mayor Cho Eun-hee (right) commemorative photo

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Cho Eun-hee, Mayor of Seocho-gu, Seoul, received the Taxpayer Rights Award from a civic organization.

While the Seoul Metropolitan Government has stalled Seocho-gu's property tax refund through a Supreme Court lawsuit and injunction application, a reputable civic organization in this field has supported Seocho-gu's policy.

Seocho-gu announced that Mayor Cho Eun-hee received the Taxpayer Rights Award in the tax administration category at the '9th Taxpayer Rights Awards' ceremony held by the Korea Taxpayers Association on the 19th.

The Korea Taxpayers Association is a civic organization established to protect taxpayers' legitimate rights and interests and to foster a sound tax-paying culture to realize tax justice. The Taxpayer Rights Award is given to individuals or organizations that have made achievements in promoting taxpayer rights. It is selected in seven categories: legislation, tax system, tax administration, taxation, academia, media, and taxpayers, and this year marks the 9th ceremony.

It is especially significant that this is the first time in history that a local government head has received the Taxpayer Rights Award in the tax administration category. Except for Professor Park Hoon of the University of Seoul at the first ceremony in 2012, all previous recipients have been senior officials of the National Tax Service.

At the awards ceremony, Mayor Cho Eun-hee said, “As the only opposition party mayor among the 25 districts of Seoul, I am pushing for property tax reductions alone in a 1 to 24 situation, but I once again felt that many people are silently supporting me from behind,” expressing her gratitude.

In the tax administration field, Mayor Cho Eun-hee was recognized for her contributions to promoting taxpayer rights through various policies such as ▲ proactively enacting a property tax reduction ordinance to alleviate the burden on taxpayers struggling with the sharp rise in property taxes during the COVID-19 disaster situation ▲ holding visiting tax explanation sessions ▲ establishing and operating a local tax automatic calculator website ▲ operating a free tax legal consultation desk ▲ implementing a local tax payment deadline SMS notification service.

During the unprecedented disaster situation caused by COVID-19, Seocho-gu listened to the voices of many residents suffering from the 'tax bomb' and enacted the property tax reduction ordinance ('Partial Amendment to Seocho-gu Local Tax Ordinance').

The core of this ordinance is to refund 50% of the local government’s share of property tax for single-homeowners with houses valued at 900 million KRW or less based on the publicly announced price. It can be said that this ordinance was created to protect single-homeowners without speculative intent.

In response, on the 30th of last month, the Seoul Metropolitan Government filed a nullity confirmation lawsuit with the Supreme Court against the 'Partial Amendment to Seocho-gu Local Tax Ordinance' enacted by Seocho-gu and simultaneously submitted an injunction application to suspend the ordinance's effect. They have taken steps to block the property tax refund to Seocho-gu residents.

Regarding this, Seocho-gu stated that the ordinance was based on the Local Tax Act provision allowing local government heads to reduce property tax in disaster situations and set reasonable tax standards, and said, “The Seoul Metropolitan Government, which should lead local autonomy, is taking the lead in infringing on local autonomy rights and unfairly violating citizens' rights.”

In this litigation situation, the Korea Taxpayers Association awarding Mayor Cho the Taxpayer Rights Award appears to side with Seocho-gu in the dispute over the property tax refund. It is interpreted as supporting Seocho-gu’s policy to actively protect single-homeowners who have faced increased tax burdens due to unintended housing price rises.

Mayor Cho Eun-hee of Seocho-gu said, “The reason for promoting the property tax reduction policy was that we could not ignore the suffering of residents whose basic livelihoods were shaken by the surge in property taxes during the unprecedented pandemic,” adding, “I am pleased that the policy I enthusiastically pursued received a good evaluation from a civic organization. Although we cannot refund the property tax immediately due to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s lawsuit, we will do our best to win at the Supreme Court and ensure the property tax is refunded.”

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