The Gyeonggi Province Metropolitan Delinquent Tax Team is checking the delinquent taxpayer's rental safe and securing cash.
[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province collected a total of 101.4 billion KRW from high-amount tax delinquents last year. The number of collection targets reached over 4,300 people.
The Gyeonggi Province Metropolitan Delinquent Tax Team announced on the 6th that last year, by expanding the organization and strengthening cooperation with city and county offices, they conducted on-site investigations on 10,213 high-amount tax delinquents and, based on this, carried out home searches and seizure of financial assets, collecting delinquent taxes amounting to 101.4 billion KRW from 4,308 people.
This year, the province plans to proceed with strong enforcement procedures such as home searches, seizure of movable property, and public auctions, and will include additional seizure targets such as investment funds from local agricultural cooperatives or Saemaeul Geumgo, as well as various financial investment assets, to strengthen tax collection efforts.
Along with the collection performance of high-amount tax delinquents, the province also introduced the status of local tax delinquencies on the same day. The cases presented confirm that the 'tricks' of delinquents trying to avoid paying overdue taxes remain prevalent.
In April last year, at a country house in front of Nami Island in Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi Province.
Investigators from the Metropolitan Delinquent Tax Team visited the home of habitual delinquent Mr. A to search for hidden assets, but aside from a massage chair, TV, and golf clubs, there were no other seizure items, so they were about to leave when they noticed a luxury car parked in front of the house.
Seeing a business card of Mr. A’s wife next to the steering wheel, they requested to open the car door, but Mr. A and his wife refused, saying they did not have the car keys.
After about an hour of resistance, the car door was finally opened, and the investigators found a light green cloth bundle in the trunk.
Inside the bundle, gold rings, gold bracelets, and other precious metals worth several hundred million KRW spilled out.
Mr. A had anticipated the home search and hidden these valuables in his wife’s car trunk. The Metropolitan Delinquent Tax Team seized these jewels and collected 28 million KRW of delinquent taxes accumulated over nine years through a public auction.
There was also a case of forced opening of a bank safe deposit box to collect taxes.
A safe deposit box is a small private safe rented from a bank to securely store valuables such as cash, securities, and precious metals.
The Metropolitan Delinquent Tax Team detected that Mr. B, who had been delinquent on 13 million KRW for five years, had a safe deposit box installed in the VIP room of a bank in Gangnam, Seoul, and with the bank’s cooperation, forcibly opened the box in January last year.
Among the cash and precious metals inside the box, they seized 100 bills of 10,000 yen Japanese currency and jewelry worth tens of millions of KRW.
There was also a suspected case of disguised mortgage.
Mr. C, living in Yangju City, Gyeonggi Province, has been delinquent on local taxes amounting to 11 million KRW for 12 cases from 2012 to recently.
Mr. C, who had not paid overdue taxes, lent 210 million KRW in 2015 to an acquaintance for purchasing land in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and established a mortgage on the land.
Acquiring real estate under a third party’s name and then setting a mortgage is a method often used by high-amount tax delinquents to conceal assets.
In general, for real estate, the collection agency can proceed with seizure and public auction, but seizure of real estate under a third party’s name is not possible.
However, since mortgages can be seized, when public auctions or sales of real estate under Mr. C’s name proceed, the delinquent tax can be prioritized and collected from the distribution of proceeds allocated to the delinquent Mr. B.
Lee Eui-hwan, Director of the Tax Justice Division of the province, promised, "We will carry out even stronger collection activities against habitual delinquents who use tricks that go against a fair society."
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