Transfers Over 1 Million Won Subject to 30-Minute Withdrawal Delay Starting Today

[Anchor]

It is time for Friendly Economy. We touched on this related topic before: starting today (the 2nd), if you deposit more than 1 million won into a bank, you will have to wait 30 minutes before you can withdraw it from an ATM, right?

[Reporter]

Yes, it starts today. The limit used to be 3 million won, but starting today, the threshold is lowered to 1 million won.

Banks, securities firms, and post offices are all included, and the reason was explained previously. It is again because of voice phishing. Even if someone sends money after being scammed, if they realize in the meantime, "Oops, I've been scammed," and report it quickly, blocking the money from being withdrawn for 30 minutes solves the problem. Previously, with the limit set at 3 million won, bad actors bypassed this by splitting amounts into 150,000 and 180,000 won, so the amount is lowered to 1 million won today. But when people ask, "What are we supposed to do if we urgently need to receive money?", there are still ways around it.

In the case of cash, if you go to the bank counter, you can receive it right away, and sending money via internet banking is not blocked.

So only ATMs are restricted starting today because criminals use them so much.

[Anchor]

Since it is a safety device for us, we should get used to it even if it is a bit inconvenient. Also, when looking into where taxes are paid the least, people in Gangnam, who we usually think have the most money, paid the least, is that correct?

[Reporter]

Yes, we compiled data by tax office, and there are 5 tax offices in Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu. When checking the top 5 places nationwide with the highest amount of unpaid delinquent taxes, 4 out of these 5 were included.

The amounts are quite substantial, too. Looking at it, Seocho Tax Office, which handles major areas in Seocho-gu, has nearly 1 trillion won—specifically 920 billion won—in accumulated unpaid taxes.

Samsung Tax Office, which has jurisdiction over places like Daechi-dong and Samsung-dong, ranked 2nd, while Yeoksam and Banpo ranked 3rd and 5th. Adding those 4 together exceeds 3 trillion won in unpaid taxes.

Furthermore, unpaid taxes have increased significantly compared to last year. Seocho Tax Office, which ranks 1st as you can see now, has increased by about 50 billion won compared to last year, and 2nd-place Samsung Tax Office has also increased by about 80 billion won.

So, one might think that Gangnam tax offices collect that much more tax, which is why the backlog is also large, but the number 1 spot nationwide is actually Yeongdeungpo Tax Office.

It collects three times as much tax as Seocho Tax Office, yet it is not on this ranking. Therefore, it is correct that people in Gangnam pay fewer taxes.

[Anchor]

Well, that doesn't mean there are more individual business owners in Gangnam, and people's character probably isn't different depending on the neighborhood, so what could be the reason?

[Reporter]

It means there are many people who simply do not pay large sums of money, and then you have cases where businesses run into trouble and cannot pay taxes, and all these factors overlap to cause this problem. Which comes first and which comes second—whether Gangnam people don't pay, or whether people who don't pay live in Gangnam—is a complex issue.

Every year, 17 trillion won in taxes that should be collected goes uncollected. Out of this, authorities barely manage to collect about half with great effort, but the collection rate for delinquent taxes in areas like Gangnam is only about 20%. 80% ultimately goes uncollected.

Even when trying to catch them, many wealthy offenders cleverly hide their assets in foreign currency or gold at home, which leads to this kind of problem. Even when going around trying to collect it, it ultimately is not easy.

Ultimately, failing to collect that much means that people in other regions have to make up for it, which causes a loss to the general public.

[Anchor]

Resident taxes have gone up this year too, causing a lot of complaints, and it feels a bit unfair when the same people always end up paying dutifully.

[Reporter]

Exactly. Resident taxes are also becoming a controversy, and the amount isn't actually that huge.

Yet, people easily get upset over just a few thousand won. While hundreds of millions of won go uncollected like that, resident taxes are levied once a year. They vary by neighborhood rather than being uniform nationwide, but on average until last year, the annual average was under 5,000 won.

It was about 4,600 won, but many places have raised it significantly. A great number of regions have more than doubled it to 10,000 won, and places like Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, and Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province have many areas raising it to 7,000 won.

In the capital area, Seoul and Gyeonggi mostly did not raise it, but Incheon uniquely more than doubled it from 4,500 won to 10,000 won, which reportedly brought in a lot of phone calls with people voicing their complaints.

Part of the reason is that the government urged them to do so.

The government told them to reflect it if their budgets were short by raising resident taxes, or else face penalties later, which is why Incheon City did this. The amount of tax Incheon City raises additionally by raising resident taxes like this is 70 billion won a year.

It feels like catching just one person who hasn't paid much tax at the Seocho Tax Office could fill that 70 billion won gap. As the tax situation becomes harsher and tighter, conflicts like this are likely to continue everywhere.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.