Omunchul Tops Seoul City Tax Arrears with 15.1 Billion Won... Leading for 5 Years

Seoul City Publishes List of 13,854 High-Amount Habitual Tax Delinquents with 1.7 Trillion Won in Arrears
Includes 865 Newly Disclosed Individuals with Names, Ages, Addresses... Top Tax Arrears Holder is a Foreigner

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government disclosed on the 17th the names, business names, ages, addresses, and delinquency amounts of 13,854 high-value habitual tax delinquents who have owed more than 10 million KRW in taxes for over a year on its website.

According to Seoul City, the list released on this day includes individuals and corporate taxpayers who have been delinquent for over one year with amounts exceeding 10 million KRW as of January 1 this year, including existing delinquents who were given at least six months to provide explanations but failed to pay without special reasons. The disclosure of the list of high-value habitual local tax delinquents was simultaneously made nationwide from 9 a.m. through the websites of Seoul City, other local governments, and the tax payment site WETAX.

Since Seoul City sent advance notification letters regarding the list disclosure in March, 241 delinquents voluntarily paid 4.9 billion KRW in overdue taxes. After extracting 1,059 new candidates for list disclosure as of January 1 this year, Seoul City conducted fact-finding investigations, held a local tax review committee meeting on March 22, sent advance notification letters, and provided a six-month period for payment and explanation opportunities.

This time, 865 new delinquents were included in the list disclosure, with a total delinquency amount of 65.5 billion KRW. Additionally, previously disclosed delinquents with amounts exceeding 10 million KRW were also included, bringing the total number of delinquents disclosed to 13,854, with a total delinquency amount reaching 1.7187 trillion KRW.

Among the 865 newly disclosed delinquents included for the first time this year, 635 are individuals and 230 are corporations. The average delinquency amount per person was approximately 76 million KRW. Notably, from this year, the law was amended to allow the aggregation of delinquency amounts across two or more local governments for disclosure purposes, so the delinquency amounts of 44 taxpayers exceeding 10 million KRW, combining amounts between autonomous districts and between the city and autonomous districts, totaling 1.8 billion KRW, were also included in the disclosure.

Among the newly disclosed delinquents, the highest individual delinquency and the highest corporate delinquency were confirmed to be by foreigners and foreign corporations, respectively. A Seoul City official stated, "Seoul City is implementing measures such as tax delinquency notifications to foreigners, visa extension restrictions, and seizure of foreign workers' insurance," adding, "To strengthen foreigner tax delinquency enforcement in the future, we will establish an efficient collection system for foreign delinquents by linking foreign registration information, proposing legal amendments to related agencies for pre-departure payment of delinquency amounts, and more."

Furthermore, Seoul City plans to strengthen sanctions and tracking/search activities against high-value delinquents who deliberately evade taxes, not only by disclosing their names but also through strong measures such as ▲house searches and seizure of movable property ▲credit information provision ▲departure bans ▲prosecution referrals ▲business license restrictions.

Lee Byung-han, Director of the Finance Bureau, said, "We will pursue and collect taxes from unscrupulous high-value habitual delinquents who deliberately hide assets and live luxuriously without fulfilling their tax obligations," and added, "For delinquents whose names are disclosed, we will conduct house searches and administrative sanctions to ensure that the majority of citizens who pay taxes faithfully do not feel relatively deprived, thereby fostering a healthy tax culture and realizing tax justice."

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