Seoul Chamber of Commerce Holds Meeting with Seoul National Tax Service Commissioner

'The 74th Seoul Economic Committee' Meeting Held
Recommendations Including Reduction of Penalty Tax Rate for Payment Delays Due to Simple Errors

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The Seoul Chamber of Commerce and Industry invited Lim Sung-bin, head of the Seoul Regional Tax Office, to discuss the difficulties faced by small and medium-sized business owners and requested improvements to the system.

On the 2nd, the Seoul Chamber announced that it held the '74th Seoul Economic Committee' at the Chamber of Commerce building on Sejong-daero. The meeting was attended by 20 district chamber presidents from Seoul, including Heo Beom-mu, Chairman of the Seoul Economic Committee (President of Seongdong-gu Chamber of Commerce), Lee Hong-won, President of Gangdong-gu Chamber of Commerce, Park Jae-hwan, President of Dobong-gu Chamber of Commerce, and Lee Jae-heung, President of Mapo-gu Chamber of Commerce.

The attendees proposed ▲differential application of late payment penalty rates ▲expansion of the taxable period for loss carryback refunds.

Son Tae-soon, President of Seocho-gu Chamber of Commerce, stated, "Even in cases of short-term business reasons without intent to evade taxes or simple mistakes causing delayed payments, a high penalty rate of 9.125% per annum is applied," and requested, "Please lower the penalty rate for delayed payments due to simple taxpayer errors."

Kim Young-chul, President of Dongdaemun-gu Chamber of Commerce, said, "Due to the impact of COVID-19, companies whose business conditions worsened for two consecutive years from 2020 have low tax payments in the previous year and thus cannot receive loss carryback refunds this year," and argued, "It is necessary to expand the taxable period eligible for loss carryback refunds by an additional 1 to 3 years beyond the previous year."

Following this, Lee Ho-sung, President of Guro-gu Chamber of Commerce, said, "Currently, under the Income Tax Act, meal allowances are non-taxable only up to 100,000 KRW per month, which amounts to only 5,000 KRW per meal based on 20 working days," and requested, "Please raise the deduction limit, which has been frozen for nearly 20 years, to at least 200,000 KRW to reflect current realities."

Meanwhile, the Seoul Economic Committee is composed of presidents of 25 chambers of commerce in Seoul and was launched in December 2003 to support the improvement of the business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Seoul area.

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