[Opinion] Even Losers Deserve a Chance to Make a Comeback

▲Lee Jeong-hee, Vice Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Korean drama series on Netflix, "Ojingeo Game" (Squid Game), is gaining phenomenal popularity worldwide. Why does a simple yet surreal drama based on childhood games resonate so deeply? It is likely because it reflects the harsh realities of the real world, not just simple nostalgia for the past.

People cornered in society dream of turning their lives around and engage in unavoidable brutal battles, while the ultra-wealthy who organize the game leisurely drink and merely watch, treating the losers as objects of amusement. Many around the world see themselves reflected in the desperate struggles of the losers in the drama who want to escape their harsh realities at any cost.

Just like in the drama, there are many losers in our country’s reality who are economically struggling. Moreover, with the COVID-19 pandemic worsening the economy for ordinary people, there are those who are drowning in debt due to financial failure and losing even the basic will to live. According to the relative poverty rate in Korea announced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in October this year, it stands at 16.7%, the fourth highest among 37 member countries. This statistic vividly reveals the dark reality of our society.

There is a saying that poverty is difficult even for the state to remedy, but that does not mean the state should stand idly by. Indifference from the state toward citizens trapped in a dead-end in life is itself a dereliction of duty. From this perspective, I would like to discuss the role of the Ombudsman in the tax sector at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, as an ombudsman institution, provides relief through recommendations against illegal or unfair dispositions by administrative agencies. Among these, it has been faithfully fulfilling its role as an ombudsman in the tax sector. Over the past three years, it has resolved 762 tax-related grievance complaints and corrected tax impositions or collection procedures that were wrongly imposed or had procedural defects, amounting to approximately 107.7 billion KRW, thereby reducing taxes or extinguishing payment obligations.

A representative example is the recommendation to extinguish the payment obligations of overdue taxes for people unable to engage in economic activities due to long-term unproductive seizures, helping them to recover. In particular, in December 2019, a planned investigation was conducted, and recommendations were made to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and National Tax Service to prepare "Improvement Measures for the Taxpayer Rights Protection in Overdue Tax Collection Procedures." This led to legislative amendments, the main points of which require tax authorities to sell seized property within a certain period and release seizures on property with no economic value, thereby giving delinquent taxpayers a chance to recover.

Delinquent taxpayers suffer various disadvantages such as credit downgrades, travel restrictions, and limitations on licensed businesses. Of course, for those who deliberately evade taxes by hiding assets, active and prompt asset tracking and tax collection are necessary. However, holding long-term delinquency hostage with seizures of unproductive assets creates a vicious cycle harmful to both the individual and the state. This is because individuals are deprived of opportunities for economic activity and cannot even take a foothold to recover, while the state finds it difficult to secure resources in the long term as these individuals cannot participate in the economy. Ultimately, policies that benefit both the people and the state must be pursued.

Now, when the lives of citizens are difficult due to COVID-19, rather than leaving the failures of small business owners and other delinquent taxpayers unattended, we must move toward a virtuous cycle that gives them opportunities to recover economically.