Lee Yi-kyung Faces Additional Tax Assessment in One-Man Agency Audit... "No Intentional Evasion"

Actor Lee Yi-kyung has issued an apology after it was revealed that he was subjected to a tax assessment during the operation of his one-man agency, stating that "there was no intentional tax evasion."

On May 13, his agency, Sangyoung ENT, announced, "Since his debut, Lee Yi-kyung has faithfully fulfilled his tax obligations in compliance with tax laws," adding, "The results of the tax audit stemmed from differences in interpretation of tax law regarding expense handling standards during the operation of the corporation, between the tax authorities and our company." The agency stressed that there was absolutely no intentional omission of income or any fraudulent means of evasion.

Sangyoung ENT stated, "We sincerely apologize for causing concern to so many people," and added, "We will thoroughly examine our tax and accounting management systems to prevent similar cases from occurring."

Tax authorities took issue with the fact that Lee Yi-kyung, through his one-man corporation, reported a portion of his personal income as corporate revenue. It is reported that authorities saw this as a potential case of tax avoidance, as the maximum corporate tax rate is lower than the personal income tax rate. Sangyoung ENT commented, "We respect the findings of the National Tax Service and will pay the assessed additional taxes."

Recently, there have been a number of cases in the entertainment industry where individuals have been subjected to additional tax assessments for using one-man corporations. Last year, it was belatedly revealed that actor Cha Eun-woo had been notified of an additional tax assessment of approximately 20 billion won following a tax audit. Actors Lee Hanee and Yoo Yeon-seok have also received notices of large additional tax assessments.