Seongnam Local Tax Delinquents Among Foreigners: 'Korean-Chinese' Account for 59.2%, the Highest

Poster Guiding Local Tax Payment Methods for Foreigners in Seongnam City

Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province is launching a special campaign to collect overdue taxes from foreigners.

Seongnam City announced on the 20th that it has designated the period from this month to next month as the "Special Collection Period for Foreigners' Overdue Taxes" and will focus on collecting overdue taxes from foreigners.

As of the end of September this year, the status of local tax arrears by foreigners in Seongnam City includes a total of 6,223 individuals and 9,764 cases, with overdue amounts totaling 1.29 billion KRW. This accounts for 3.2% of the total local tax arrears of 40.07 billion KRW. Specifically, the breakdown is ▲Korean-Chinese 3,684 people (59.2%) ▲Americans 571 people (9.2%) ▲Chinese 363 people (5.8%) ▲Canadians 206 people (3.3%) ▲Vietnamese 185 people (3.0%), in that order.

Due to a lack of awareness about tax payment and communication difficulties, the amount of overdue taxes by foreigners has been increasing every year.

Accordingly, Seongnam City is operating the special collection period for foreigners' overdue taxes and is implementing various plans to resolve these arrears.

On the 18th, Seongnam City sent integrated overdue tax notices in four languages?Korean, English, Chinese, and Vietnamese?to 2,171 foreign taxpayers whose addresses were confirmed. Leaflets and banners produced in these four languages will also be installed at local foreigner welfare centers and multicultural family support centers to raise awareness about overdue taxes and encourage payment.

Furthermore, for habitual and chronic defaulters, strong enforcement measures will be taken, including seizure of assets such as vehicles, deposits, and real estate, as well as license plate confiscation and vehicle auctions. For foreign workers who are required to have foreigner-exclusive insurance, immediate seizure and collection will be carried out in cooperation with insurance companies regarding departure maturity insurance and return cost insurance.

In addition, for high-amount and habitual defaulters, the Ministry of Justice will be notified to restrict visa extensions as part of the collection measures.

A Seongnam City official stated, "We will actively promote tax payment for foreigners who face difficulties due to language barriers, while enforcing strong collection measures against habitual and chronic defaulters to realize tax justice without discrimination between nationals and foreigners."

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