Gwangju Nam-gu Implements 'KakaoTalk Local Tax Refund Application Service'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, will launch a new project this year called the ‘KakaoTalk Local Tax Refund Application Service.’

This aims to eliminate administrative waste caused by sending multiple notices due to failure to apply for refund payments during the local tax refund process and to provide taxpayer-centered non-face-to-face services.

According to Nam-gu on the 8th, local tax refunds occur annually for various reasons.

Typical cases include transferring ownership or scrapping a vehicle after paying the annual or regular automobile tax in advance, refunds of local income tax due to national tax corrections, and double payments.

From 2017 to 2021, the total number of refund cases reached 32,786, amounting to 6.432 billion KRW, with 31,891 cases refunded totaling 6.417 billion KRW.

Nam-gu sends an average of four notices to recipients each time a refund occurs to encourage refund applications; however, over the past five years, there remain 895 cases amounting to 15 million KRW where refunds have not yet been claimed.

In particular, since cases of unclaimed refunds under 100,000 KRW account for 97% of all occurrences, low interest in small refunds is considered the main cause.

Accordingly, since the expiration period for local tax refunds is five years and the expiration for refunds from 2017 is approaching, Nam-gu decided to encourage refund applications again through KakaoTalk notifications to prevent financial losses to the parties involved.

Additionally, to provide taxpayer-centered tax services, the ‘Gwangju Nam-gu Local Tax Refund’ channel was opened on KakaoTalk.

Residents wishing to use the KakaoTalk local tax refund application service can easily receive their refunds by accessing the channel and entering the document number listed on the notice, the name of the refund recipient, the bank name, and the account number in their name through the chat window.

A Nam-gu official stated, “The introduction of the KakaoTalk local tax refund application service is expected to reduce small unclaimed refunds and simultaneously enhance taxpayer convenience.”

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