S. Korea's tax agency cracks down on illegal wealth transfer

[unreal.livejournal.com]

South Korea's tax agency said Thursday that it is investigating owners of some mid-sized local companies on charges that they used irregular methods to transfer wealth to their offspring without paying due taxes.

The probe is part of the government's efforts to crack down on offshore tax evasions and illegal wealth transfer among rich people and those in the corporate sector, according to the National Tax Service (NTS).

The NTS said that it is now conducting a tax probe in 11 cases involving business people on suspicion that they transferred wealth to their offspring through irregular ways, including using tax havens. So far this year, it has collected 278.3 billion won (US$246.3 million) from them in additional taxes.


The NTS added that it has recently launched a probe into 10 other mid-sized enterprises along with business people and other wealth citizens on similar suspicions.

Those under investigation have not been identified, but the NTS said that they include companies whose annual sales range from 100 billion won to 500 billion won.

The move comes as the government has been toughening its stance on such tax-avoiding attempts. It is also in line with the government's push to establish a fair society.

"Rich people using loopholes to transfer wealth causes ordinary citizens to feel a sense of relative deprivation. This leads to an outflow of national assets and eventually threatens the foundation of a fair society," said Lim Hwan-soo, a senior NTS official. "We will do our best to prevent these harmful effects by strictly enforcing laws on any attempts to avoid paying taxes."

Source: yonhapnews