360,000 Residents Owe 6,170 Won in Resident Tax, 17% of Defaulters in Gangnam's 3 Districts... Seoul City "Mass Settlement by September"

The Largest Resident Tax Defaulter Lives in Seocho-gu, Unpaid for 28 Years
Seoul City to Conduct Joint Special Cleanup with Districts in August and September

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Residents of the three Gangnam districts of Seoul?Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa?account for 17% of all delinquent resident tax payers. Among the autonomous districts, Gangnam-gu had the highest number of delinquents, followed by Gwanak-gu and Songpa-gu. The longest delinquent was a Seocho-gu resident who failed to pay the resident tax 28 times over 28 years.

On the 26th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that as of the end of July this year, there are 850,000 delinquent taxpayers in Seoul, with a total of 4.47 million delinquent cases. Among them, 360,000 are delinquent on the individual equalized resident tax, with 1.04 million delinquent cases, accounting for 42.4% of the number of delinquents and 23.3% of the delinquent cases.

The individual equalized resident tax is imposed annually on July 1st on the head of household regardless of income or property ownership, with the amount determined by local government ordinances and levied together with the local education tax in August of the same year. Seoul charges 6,000 KRW (4,800 KRW resident tax, 1,200 KRW local education tax). This year, Seoul imposed 22.664 billion KRW on 3,799,951 people, with the payment deadline set for August 31.

To settle the delinquent resident tax, the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s 38th Tax Collection Division announced that the 25 autonomous districts will jointly operate a special settlement period for two months in August and September.

It was confirmed that 146,000 delinquent taxpayers have only one case of delinquent individual equalized resident tax, accounting for 40.3% of the total 363,000 resident tax delinquents. A Seoul city official explained, "Unlike other taxes, the individual equalized resident tax is imposed on the head of household regardless of property or income, and since the amount charged is a small sum of 6,000 KRW, taxpayers receiving the bill tend to have low tax awareness, leading to delinquency."

In particular, by autonomous district, 65,206 people in the three Gangnam districts?Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa?delinquent on 179,591 cases, accounting for 17.3% of all delinquents. Specifically, Gangnam-gu had the highest number with 25,073 people, followed by Gwanak-gu with 22,617 people, and Songpa-gu with 22,356 people. The longest and most frequent delinquent was a Seocho-gu resident who failed to pay all 28 resident tax charges levied over 28 years since 1992.

During this special settlement period, Seoul and each autonomous district will send notices or bills to individual equalized resident tax delinquents and will also send public alert text messages via mobile phones to encourage payment of delinquent taxes. Lee Byung-wook, head of the 38th Tax Collection Division, said, "The individual equalized resident tax is a tax that every head of household residing in Seoul must pay, yet many citizens are delinquent. We ask that residents also pay any delinquent resident tax along with the regular August resident tax levied this time."

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