Unpaid National Taxes Totaling 100 Trillion Won... Gangnam Tax Office Tops Delinquency List

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] By the end of last year, the amount of unpaid national taxes that the government failed to collect approached 100 trillion won. Among all tax offices nationwide, Gangnam Tax Office had the highest cumulative unpaid tax amount.

According to the first quarter national tax statistics released by the National Tax Service on the 31st, the cumulative unpaid national tax amount as of the end of last year was recorded at 99.9 trillion won. Of this, the 'unpaid taxes under settlement,' which have a high likelihood of collection, amounted to 11.5 trillion won (11.5%), while the remaining 88.4 trillion won (88.5%) were classified as 'unpaid taxes on hold,' which are practically difficult to collect. Unpaid taxes on hold refer to amounts with low collection probability, such as cases where the taxpayer has no assets, the taxpayer is missing, or forced collection was attempted but insufficient.

Among tax offices nationwide, the one with the highest cumulative unpaid tax amount was Seoul Gangnam Tax Office, with unpaid taxes reaching 2.3872 trillion won. Seocho Tax Office (2.30765 trillion won) followed. Additionally, Samsung Tax Office (2.2232 trillion won) and Banpo Tax Office (2.157 trillion won), also located in Gangnam, Seoul, ranked high in cumulative unpaid tax amounts.

By tax type, the cumulative unpaid value-added tax amounted to 26.8 trillion won (36.3%), accounting for the largest share. This was followed by income tax at 22.5 trillion won (30.4%), capital gains tax at 11.9 trillion won (16.1%), and corporate tax at 8.5 trillion won (11.5%). As of the end of last year, the cumulative unpaid comprehensive real estate tax (Jongbu Tax) was recorded at 800 billion won. This represents an increase of about 300 billion won (50.9%) compared to the end of 2020 (500 billion won). The cumulative number of unpaid Jongbu Tax cases rose to 73,424, about 1.7 times the previous year's 42,840 cases.

Last year, the National Tax Service's tax revenue amounted to 334.5 trillion won, an increase of 57.2 trillion won (20.6%) compared to 2020 (277.3 trillion won). By tax type, the tax revenue scale was income tax at 114.1 trillion won (34.1%), value-added tax at 71.2 trillion won (21.3%), and corporate tax at 70.4 trillion won (21.0%). Other taxes included transportation, energy, and environmental tax at 16.6 trillion won (5.0%), inheritance and gift tax at 15 trillion won (4.5%), securities transaction tax at 10.3 trillion won (3.1%), and individual consumption tax at 9.4 trillion won (2.8%).

Among tax offices nationwide, the highest tax revenue was recorded by Busan Suyeong Tax Office (20.3 trillion won). This was followed by Namdaemun Tax Office (19.2312 trillion won), Yeongdeungpo Tax Office (12.4977 trillion won), Ulsan Tax Office (10.6951 trillion won), and Samsung Tax Office (9.2684 trillion won).

For the first half of 2021, earned income tax credits were paid to 1.12 million households totaling 495.3 billion won. The average payment per household was 441,000 won, slightly higher than the 436,000 won for the 2020 tax year.

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