Seoul's '38 Tax Collection Division' Celebrates 20th Anniversary, Wins 6 Awards Including Minister of the Interior and Safety Award and Seoul Creativity Award This Year

Tracking and Collecting Hidden Assets Using Various Methods Including Virtual Asset Seizure and Prison Deposit Seizure
Civilian-Selected Best Civil Service Improvement Award, Excellence in Proactive Administration Award, and Seoul Creativity Award Encouragement Prize Swept

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The 38th Tax Collection Division of Seoul City has been externally recognized for its achievements in collecting overdue taxes, winning six awards including the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award for excellent cases of local finance innovation hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, as well as the Best Award in the civil service improvement category chosen by citizens.

On the 29th, Seoul City announced that amid the prolonged COVID-19 situation, instead of reducing face-to-face collection activities by directly visiting defaulters, it continuously researched various new tax collection methods such as cryptocurrency seizure and carried out tax collection activities while disseminating these methods to multiple institutions, earning recognition for these efforts.

The 38th Tax Collection Division of Seoul City was established in 2001 as a dedicated organization for collecting overdue taxes from unscrupulous high-amount defaulters, following Article 38 of the Constitution which states, "All citizens shall have the duty to pay taxes as prescribed by law." This year marks its 20th anniversary.

The 38th Tax Collection Division of Seoul City has persistently tracked down defaulters, starting with collecting 700 million KRW from a closed business defaulter who had not paid for 20 years as of the end of January this year. It also conducted a search of the residence of Choi Soon-young, former chairman of the Shindonga Group with over 10 billion KRW in overdue taxes, seized artworks, and collected 600 million KRW in overdue taxes from Hanbo Steel after 23 years.

It has actively carried out various collection activities including the first local government seizure and collection of virtual assets such as Bitcoin, the nation's first seizure of wages from unscrupulous high-amount defaulters incarcerated in correctional facilities, the first nationwide joint crackdown on overdue vehicles and "ghost cars" involving four related agencies, Seoul City's first investigation of high-amount defaulters exchanging high-value cashier's checks, seizure of high-amount defaulters' deposit money, and seizure of intangible property rights.

Additionally, it started sending overdue tax notices via mobile for the first time in 20 years, unified the period for travel bans on high-amount defaulters, produced the first multilingual guide in 14 languages for foreign defaulters, and promoted various system improvements such as linking welfare programs for livelihood-type defaulters, resulting in 22 defaulters being designated as beneficiaries this year. Recently, it also released 1,117 seizure properties that had no practical benefit to give defaulters a chance for rehabilitation.

Despite the difficulties in collecting overdue taxes due to COVID-19, Seoul City has already collected 227.3 billion KRW as of the end of November this year through new collection methods and system improvements, and expects to collect the highest amount of overdue taxes ever by the end of this year.

Lee Byung-han, Director of the Seoul City Finance Bureau, said, "The 38th Tax Collection Division, marking its 20th anniversary, can be called the first year to set a new direction in light of past achievements and current challenges. In 2022, by pioneering collection fields never seen before, we will fundamentally block malicious and intentional asset concealment to create a fair social atmosphere where 'taxes must be paid.' At the same time, we will lead the way in building a mutually prosperous Seoul by 'delivering voices of support' to defaulters facing livelihood difficulties due to the overall social crisis."

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