Gyeonggi-do Introduces 'Electronic Management System for Tax Delinquency Disposition' for Virtual Assets Nationwide for the First Time

Gyeonggi Province is introducing an electronic management system for delinquent disposition targeting virtual assets such as Bitcoin. Graphic provided by Gyeonggi Provincial Government

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi-do has completed the country's first "electronic management system" that manages all delinquent tax collection procedures such as tracking, seizure, and collection of virtual assets held by delinquent taxpayers, including Bitcoin, through a program, and will begin actual operation from next year.

The province is also in the process of patenting the system.

Gyeonggi-do announced on the 29th that it began development in January and completed the "Electronic Management Method for Tax Delinquent Cryptocurrency Collection" program in September. Recently, it completed a pilot operation in collaboration with virtual asset exchanges Korbit, Bithumb, and Pocheon City, and plans to utilize it throughout the province starting January next year.

Using this system, the period that previously took about six months for sending the delinquent taxpayer list to virtual asset exchanges, detailed investigation, seizure, and collection can be drastically reduced to around 15 days.

Previously, when each local government sent the delinquent taxpayer list to a cryptocurrency exchange, the exchange would verify membership registration by phone number. To add processes such as the scale of the delinquent taxpayer's virtual assets, tracking investigation, seizure, and sale, it took about six months due to the need to send official documents one by one, receive replies, and request cooperation again.

The "Electronic Management of Tax Delinquent Cryptocurrency Collection" was developed like a kind of electronic post office to drastically improve the success rate of detecting membership registration at cryptocurrency exchanges based on tracking mobile phone numbers using the resident registration numbers of delinquent taxpayers held by local governments, as well as to shorten these delinquent collection procedures.

When the province inputs the delinquent taxpayer list into the system, tracking investigation, seizure, asset transfer and sale, Korean won collection, and seizure release of the delinquent taxpayer's virtual assets are all conducted within the system.

However, the seized virtual assets of delinquent taxpayers are transferred to the local government's account according to the revised law, and the local government directly enforces forced sales.

To this end, the province is working on account creation and virtual account linkage in cooperation with Korbit and Shinhan Bank among the exchanges.

In addition to the exchanges currently collaborating, the province is pursuing partnerships with other virtual asset exchanges for delinquent taxpayer investigation work.

The first seizure of virtual assets using the electronic management system is scheduled for the first half of next year.

The province expects that tracking virtual asset holdings using big data will increase delinquent tax collection amounts.

Ryu Young-yong, Director of the Tax Justice Division of the province, said, "It has been difficult to track and collect virtual assets held by delinquent taxpayers until now," adding, "Through the electronic management system introduced by Gyeonggi-do this time, we will make further efforts to carry out thorough collection activities against chronic delinquents and foster a culture of sincere tax payment."

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