[Anchor]
The National Tax Service has initiated collection procedures for 390 billion won in unpaid taxes owed by Kwon Hyuk, chairman of Seido Group, widely known as the "Ship King." If collected in full, this will mark the largest tax recovery in history.
Reporter Choi Seung-hun has the details.
[Reporter]
The individual delinquent tax amount for Kwon Hyuk, long referred to as the "Ship King," stands at 393.8 billion won.
Combined with the delinquent amounts of related corporations that bear secondary tax liability, the total reaches 790.2 billion won.
Having defaulted on his taxes for 15 years, Kwon topped the list of high-value and habitual delinquents for individual unpaid taxes.
Following tracking efforts by the National Tax Service, Kwon has initially paid 100 billion won in cash.
Kwon submitted a payment plan for the remaining 2,938 billion won of his individual tax arrears and provided overseas vessels as collateral.
The National Tax Service is currently evaluating whether the collateral value of the provided overseas vessels is appropriate.
This marks the first case in which overseas vessels have been provided as collateral when there are no domestic assets under the taxpayer's name, and a preliminary consulting process with the Board of Audit and Inspection was conducted concurrently.
The National Tax Service explained that the information exchange and collection cooperation agreement signed in June with Liberia, a major vessel registry, contributed to this collection process.
Once both the individual arrears and the designated delinquent amounts of related corporations are fully cleared, it will be the largest-scale recovery in history.
[Lim Kwang-hyun / Commissioner of the National Tax Service : Paying such a massive amount of delinquent taxes is an unprecedented event in the history of the National Tax Service.]
Previously, Kwon filed a lawsuit contesting the tax imposition on the grounds that he was a domestic non-resident, but the court ruled that the taxation was justified.
The National Tax Service stated that it plans to collect the remaining balance according to the payment schedule, proceed with forced collection using the collateral if payments are not made, and relentlessly track down hidden assets at home and abroad to ensure the delinquent taxes are fully recovered.
(Camera Reporter: Lee Jae-young, Video Editor: Kim Jun-hee)
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