Kwon Chil-seung on 'Simplified Taxpayer' Fairness Controversy: "Will Consult Tax Authorities for Improvement"

Minister Kwon Chil-seung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, First Briefing at Sejong Government Complex
Regarding Exclusion from Support Due to Simplified Taxpayer Sales Proof Issue, "Will Consult with Authorities to Improve"
Using the Move to Sejong as an Opportunity to "Strengthen the Overall and Coordination Functions of the SME Policy Council"

On the 26th, Kwon Chil-seung, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated during a briefing held at the Sejong Government Complex, "We will work with the tax authorities to obtain data and support simplified taxpayers who had difficulty proving a decrease in semi-annual sales." Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Simplified taxpayers, who were excluded from the small business disaster relief fund due to difficulty in proving 'semi-annual sales decline,' are expected to be able to apply for support if they prepare card sales data and other documents.

On the 26th, Kwon Chil-seung, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated at a briefing held at the Sejong Government Complex, "We will cooperate with the tax authorities to obtain data and promote support measures for simplified business owners who had difficulty proving sales decline."

Unlike general taxpayers who file VAT returns semi-annually, simplified business owners (small self-employed with annual sales under 80 million KRW) and tax-exempt businesses file taxes once a year and do not have semi-annual sales documents with the National Tax Service, so they were unable to receive disaster relief funds.

In particular, simplified business owners who suffered significant sales damage due to the full-scale gathering ban in the second half of last year could not compare semi-annual sales, making it impossible to prove sales decline, and thus most were excluded from the 4th disaster relief fund.

As a result, although the budget for the government's 4th disaster relief fund, 'Support Fund Plus,' was 6.735 trillion KRW, the execution rate was only 69.3%.

For the 5th disaster relief fund, 'Hope Recovery Fund,' simplified business owners and tax-exempt businesses previously excluded from eligibility are expected to be supported if they can prove sales decline through administrative data such as card sales and cash receipt data.

Minister Kwon said, "I apologize to small business owners who feel disadvantaged by a narrow margin because support eligibility is determined based on sales increase or decrease. Nevertheless, we based it on sales to provide stronger support to those affected by COVID-19, and this was calculated due to budget and practical circumstances."

Meanwhile, in his first briefing after moving to the Sejong Government Complex, Minister Kwon announced the "Direction for Promoting the Sejong Era," stating, "We will strengthen the overall and coordination functions of the SME Policy Council to strictly evaluate SME projects from each ministry and enhance pre-consultation to improve policy efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, to develop mid- to long-term policy tasks, we will reorganize by transferring the Future Industry Strategy Team to the Policy Bureau to respond quickly and actively to SME policy demands."

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