768 VAT Filers... Corporations by January 25, Individuals by February 25

"Considering the Difficulties Faced by Individual Business Owners, 1-Month Automatic Extension"
"File Safely via Hometax Without Visiting the Tax Office"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] January is the month for final VAT filing and payment, with corporations required to file and pay by the 28th of this month, and individuals by the 25th of next month. For individuals, the deadline has been extended by one month in consideration of difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The National Tax Service (NTS) announced on the 6th that the total number of VAT filers this time is 7.68 million, including 1.03 million corporate taxpayers and 6.65 million individual taxpayers (4.68 million general and 1.97 million simplified), an increase of 330,000 compared to last year's final filers (7.35 million).

The NTS will actively provide tax support such as tax reductions and exemptions for individual taxpayers, early refunds, and payment extensions for small and medium-sized enterprises and other businesses facing difficulties. Individual general taxpayers with a taxable supply amount of 40 million KRW or less during the six-month tax period will receive reductions equivalent to simplified taxpayers, and the exemption threshold for simplified taxpayers' payment obligations has been raised from 30 million KRW to 48 million KRW.

The NTS offers customized filing assistance materials by analyzing big data, external data, and tax infrastructure through the Hometax 'Filing Assistance Service' to ensure a smooth filing process. The Filing Assistance Service can be accessed automatically from the first screen of Hometax electronic filing.

In particular, mobile filing has been expanded to include all general taxpayers across industries, and the VAT ARS filing service is additionally provided to small businesses with no business performance.

This year, to prevent COVID-19 infection, tax office filing counters will not be operated separately. Taxpayers can safely file using the 'Mobile and Hometax Filing Method Videos' posted on the NTS website and YouTube.

An NTS official stated, "We will expand prior guidance and conduct more thorough verification for types of tax evasion that are continuously detected, so please be especially careful when filing," and urged, "Business owners should recognize that sincere filing is the best tax-saving method and actively participate in fostering a culture of honest reporting."

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