Top Individual Tax Delinquent 'Ship King' to Pay W400 Bln After 15 Years

[Anchor]

Kwon Hyuk, chairman of Seido Group, who was the country's top individual high-value tax delinquent, has agreed to pay approximately 400 billion won in back taxes after 15 years. This marks the largest tax collection on unpaid taxes in the history of the National Tax Service.

Reporter Chae Heesun has the details.

[Reporter]

The National Tax Service launched a special tax audit into Chairman Kwon Hyuk's Seido Group in June.

Chairman Kwon, who has been dubbed the "Ship King" while operating shipping companies in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea since the 1990s, had accumulated individual back taxes totaling 393.8 billion won.

After relocating his residence to a tax haven in 2011, Kwon refused to pay taxes for 15 years, landing him at the top of the list of individual high-value and habitual delinquents.

The National Tax Service even imposed secondary tax liability on corporations associated with Kwon.

When including the amounts assigned to these corporations, the designated delinquent amount on the books reaches 790.2 billion won.

Although Kwon argued that he was not subject to taxation because he is a domestic non-resident, the Supreme Court ruled that the taxation was justified.

Following the National Tax Service's formation of a special response task force for high-value delinquents and intensive tracking, Kwon recently paid 100 billion won in cash.

He submitted a payment plan for the remaining 293.8 billion won and provided five overseas ships as collateral.

The National Tax Service explained that it was able to track and collect the assets through information exchange and joint collection agreements established with Liberia, a major ship registry.

[Lim Gwang-hyun / Commissioner of the National Tax Service: Collecting such a massive amount of back taxes is an unprecedented event in the history of the National Tax Service. (Once fully paid and forcibly collected), approximately 800 billion won in delinquent amounts, including Chairman Kwon Hyuk's personal back taxes and the designated delinquent amounts of his corporations, will be extinguished.]

The National Tax Service emphasized that it will continue to track and collect hidden domestic and overseas assets of tax delinquents by establishing a special investigation team that links tax audits with delinquent tracking.

(Photo: Yonhap News) (Video by Lee Jae-young and Kim Jun-hee | Video Editing by Cho Su-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.