Han River Views, Luxury Residences Worth Up to 20 Billion Won... Crackdown on "Emperor Mansions" Used at Will by Owners

[Anchor]

More than 4 out of 10 high-end homes registered under corporate names have been found to be used for the personal purposes of corporate owners. Owners or their children were living in them free of charge. The National Tax Service has announced intensive tax audits on these "emperor mansions."

Reporter Chae Heesun has the details.

[Reporter]

This is a luxury apartment complex in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

A small-to-medium-sized enterprise owns an apartment here under a corporate name, but an investigation by the National Tax Service revealed that the actual residents are not employees, but the married couple of the owner's child.

National Tax Service Commissioner Im Gwang-hyun disclosed the results of a comprehensive inspection on approximately 2,600 high-end corporate-owned homes with a publicly announced price of 900 million won or more via social media.

Excluding those used for rental purposes and employee dormitories, 1,097 units, or 42% of the total, were found to be used for the personal purposes of company owners.

The average publicly announced price of the homes inspected exceeded 2 billion won, with 12 houses surpassing 10 billion won, and the most expensive one exceeding 20 billion won.

The companies caught this time ranged in scale from small-to-medium enterprises to large conglomerates.

Under current tax laws, maintenance and management costs for official residences used by investing executives or their relatives cannot be processed as corporate expenses.

Nevertheless, unconventional free living has become a practice in some sectors of the industry, and Commissioner Im pointed out that some companies provided ultra-luxury apartments with great Han River views or in Gangnam and Yongsan as private residences for owners or their children while keeping it an open secret from regular employees.

[National Tax Service Official: (Because they used it for free) the children didn't pay (rent), so they have to pay income tax on that equivalent amount. Corporate tax also needs to be paid more. Because if it weren't for a special relationship (the child), they would have earned 10 million won a month in (rent). It connects not just to expenses, but to revenue as well.]

During this investigation process, cases were also confirmed where owners transferred high-end homes to corporations to evade multi-home regulations, or secured luxury condos worth over 10 billion won under corporate names for private use.

The National Tax Service plans to conduct strict tax audits on corporations where violations have been confirmed and expand verification to cover the overall private use of corporate funds.

(Video Reporter: Lee Jae-young, Video Editor: Ahn Yeo-jin, Designer: Hwang Se-yeon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.