Hamyang-gun Actively Promotes Tax Support to Overcome COVID-19

To Ease the Burden on Taxpayers Struggling Due to the Prolonged COVID-19 Pandemic, Including Ordinance Revisions

Seochunsoo, the mayor of Hamyang County, is attaching a kindness sign to a store participating in the Good Rent Movement.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Hamyang-gun, Gyeongnam, has successfully overcome the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) over the past year without large-scale cluster infections, thanks to the voluntary compliance of the residents with quarantine guidelines and active participation in social distancing.

Accordingly, Hamyang-gun tightened its fiscal belt and began providing the 2nd emergency disaster basic income support to residents starting from the 2nd. Various tax support measures have been prepared to ease the burden on residents even a little.

First, the property tax on buildings for landlords participating in the Good Landlord Movement, which was previously reduced by up to 50%, has been expanded to a reduction rate of up to 75% depending on the rental rate reduction period.

The reduction applies to owners of buildings who have discounted or provided rent-free leases for a certain period.

The county is promoting active participation in the system by producing and sending notices containing tax support details to local landlords to revitalize the Good Landlord Movement for coexistence between landlords and tenants.

Last year, the resident tax (equal share) reduction for individual and corporate business owners was applied, and the basic tax rate of resident tax (business place share) was reduced according to the revision of the Local Tax Act. This will also be applied this year.

All individual business owners are eligible for the reduction, and for corporate business owners, corporations with capital or investment amounts of 3 billion KRW or less are eligible.

In particular, this year, an expansion of the reduction to the previous resident tax (property share) is under review, which is expected to somewhat alleviate the tax burden on small business owners and SMEs.

These property tax and resident tax reductions will be finalized and implemented before the regular levy after obtaining the consent of the county council or revising the ordinance.

The county plans to extend the period or reduce rental fees and lower rental rates for small business owners and SMEs among users and lessees of public property.

For lessees who could not use the property during the period, the rental fee will be extended or reduced for the unused period, and for those who used the property, rental fee reduction support will be provided at a level of 50% or more compared to the previous year's reduction rate.

Support will be provided to small business owners and SMEs leasing public property affected by COVID-19 through the Public Property Deliberation Committee, excluding public property used for cultivation and residential purposes.

In the field of delinquent tax collection, active policies are being prepared to respond to COVID-19.

Small business owners who could not apply for deadline extensions or collection deferrals due to COVID-19 damage and incurred additional charges are in consultation with Gyeongsangnam-do to receive reductions on such charges.

For small business owners who have not paid local taxes notified since 2020, even if they pay late, additional charges incurred until the payment date can be reduced through support applications, and a system is being considered.

Taxpayers who have been delinquent on local taxes three times or more are excluded, but it is expected to ease the financial burden on small business owners who have been diligent but recently suffered business damage due to COVID-19.

So far, vehicle license plate seizure for delinquent vehicles has been restrained considering the difficult economic conditions due to COVID-19, but to ensure fairness with sincere taxpayers and efficient collection of increasing automobile tax arrears, face-to-face collection will be avoided as much as possible. Also, for livelihood-type delinquents, efficient delinquent vehicle license plate seizure activities will be conducted through delinquency disposition deferral, collection deferral, and installment inducement, implementing not only reductions but also collection activities.

Along with this, together with Gyeongnam Province, active tax support activities will be carried out, including ▲extension of the filing and payment deadlines for reported tax items ▲deferral of delinquency disposition for companies suffering difficulties due to closures caused by confirmed cases ▲postponement of tax audits for target companies.

Meanwhile, Hamyang-gun provided a total of 101 million KRW in tax support last year, including 50 million KRW in local tax reductions and 51 million KRW in public property rental fee reductions to overcome COVID-19. This year, efforts will be made in various ways to provide practical support to residents through even greater tax reductions.