Seoul City "File and Pay Corporate Local Income Tax by the End of April"

Corporations with fiscal year-end in December must report and pay to the district office of the business location by the 30th
Corporate local income tax filing can be done by visiting the district office, mail, or electronic filing

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] April is the month for corporate local income tax filing and payment.

On the 12th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that corporations with a fiscal year ending in December must visit the district office with jurisdiction over their business location by the 30th to file and pay the corporate local income tax, and that electronic filing and payment are also available without visiting the district office.

Since the corporate local income tax has separate taxing authorities (local governments) for each business location nationwide, the tax must be allocated and filed/paid for each business site. However, if a corporation has business locations in two or more autonomous districts within Seoul, it can file and pay the allocated tax amount for all Seoul business locations at once at the district office with jurisdiction over the head office or main office location.

Additionally, the corporate local income tax must be filed and paid using the method of deduction from the tax base. Previously, foreign tax credits for corporations were only deducted or credited against corporate tax to reduce the tax burden, but starting this year, the Local Tax Act has been amended to reduce the tax burden by allowing deduction from the tax base for corporate local income tax as well.

For small and medium-sized enterprises subject to business suspension or operation restrictions due to COVID-19 quarantine measures, whose corporate tax (national tax) payment deadline has been extended by three months, the payment deadline for corporate local income tax (local tax) is also extended by three months. Corporations with a three-month extension must pay the corporate local income tax by August 2. However, even if the payment deadline is extended, filing must be completed by the end of April to avoid an additional 20% penalty for non-filing.

Cheon Myeong-cheol, head of the Taxation Division of Seoul City, said, “Corporations required to file corporate local income tax should file within the deadline to avoid penalties and other disadvantages. Since filings are expected to be concentrated at the end of April when the deadline approaches, we ask that filings be submitted as early as possible.”

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