Top High-Value Delinquent 'Ship King' to Finally Pay W400 Bln After 15 Years

[Anchor]

Kwon Hyuk, the chairman of Sido Group who was the nation's top individual high-value tax delinquent, has decided to pay approximately 400 billion won in overdue taxes after 15 years. This marks the largest tax collection from a delinquent in the history of the National Tax Service.

Reporter Chae Heesun has the details.

[Reporter]

The National Tax Service initiated a special tax audit into Chairman Kwon Hyuk's Sido Group last 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 393.8 billion won in personal tax arrears.

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

The National Tax Service even held Kwon's related corporations accountable for secondary tax liabilities.

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

Kwon argued that he was not subject to taxation as a non-resident in South Korea, but the Supreme Court ruled that the taxation was legitimate.

Following tracking efforts by a special task force set up by the National Tax Service to tackle high-value delinquencies, 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 collection cooperation agreements signed with Liberia, where the major vessels are registered.

[Lim Kwang-hyun / Commissioner of the National Tax Service: This is the first time in the history of the National Tax Service that such a large amount of overdue taxes has been paid. (Once fully paid and forcibly collected), approximately 800 billion won in tax arrears, including Chairman Kwon Hyuk's personal tax arrears and the designated delinquent amounts of his corporations, will be extinguished.]

The National Tax Service emphasized that it will track down and definitively collect hidden domestic and overseas assets of delinquents by establishing a special investigation team linking tax audits with delinquency tracking.

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