[Anchor]
The National Tax Service has launched intensive tax audits into companies where controlling families have used high-end housing under corporate names for private purposes. A total of 50 companies, including 5 large conglomerates, were targeted, with the estimated amount of tax evasion reaching 1.9 trillion won.
Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the details.
[Reporter]
This is an apartment complex in Banpo-dong, Seoul.
A person surnamed A, who runs a business in Busan, purchased a multi-billion-won apartment here under a corporate name.
However, an investigation by the National Tax Service revealed that the actual resident was A's child, who works in Seoul, and that management and construction fees were also paid for using corporate funds.
[Banpo-dong Real Estate Agent: When corporations buy them, they often purchase them for dormitory use. (Have you ever heard of cases where they buy them to live in themselves?) I have heard of such cases. It's a workaround; originally, you aren't supposed to do that.]
According to the National Tax Service investigation, Corporation B, which operates a hotel and resort business, purchased a 20-billion-won house in Hannam-dong and spent 10 billion won in corporate funds on luxury interior renovations for the private use of the controlling family.
It was also found that 20 billion won in corporate funds was siphoned off under the guise of labor costs.
Cases were also repeatedly uncovered where companies avoided taxation by transferring existing homes to their own corporations after becoming two-home owners through the purchase of a reconstruction apartment in Seoul and living in them rent-free, or by purchasing luxury condos under the pretext of employee welfare and using them as private vacation homes exclusively for controlling families.
When the National Tax Service investigated 2,600 high-end corporate-owned homes with publicly announced prices of 900 million won or more, it found that controlling families and others had privately used 1,090 of them, or 42%, in this manner.
The estimated amount of tax evasion by 50 corporations with serious violations, including 5 large conglomerates, totaled 1.9 trillion won.
[Lee Sung-geun / Director General of the Investigation Bureau, National Tax Service: In addition to the private use of real estate, we confirmed tax evasion practices such as paying fabricated labor costs to controlling families and issuing false tax invoices.]
The National Tax Service announced that it will expand the scope of its investigations beyond domestic luxury residences to cases involving overseas residences provided to children studying abroad, continuing its crackdown on overall corporate fund embezzlement.
(Camera Action: Park Hyun-chul | Video Editing: Lee So-young | Design: Kim Han-gil)
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