Suwon-si Achieves Over 40 Billion KRW in Delinquent Tax Collection for 7 Consecutive Years

A delinquent tax collection officer affiliated with Suwon City is conducting a search and seizure at the home of a delinquent taxpayer. Photo by Suwon City Hall

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province collected 40.6 billion KRW in local taxes and non-tax revenues in arrears last year. This marks the seventh consecutive year since 2016 that collections have exceeded 40 billion KRW.

Suwon City announced on the 18th that it collected 47.2 billion KRW in arrears in 2016, followed by 43.0 billion KRW in 2017, 40.1 billion KRW in 2018, 43.3 billion KRW in 2019, 45.7 billion KRW in 2020, 42.7 billion KRW in 2021, and 40.6 billion KRW in 2022. The total amount collected over the past seven years reached 302.6 billion KRW.

In particular, last year Suwon City collected 284.9 million KRW in local taxes through the nation’s first "Real Estate Shake-up," which involves subrogated auction of properties with mortgage liens. The Real Estate Shake-up reexamines stakeholder interests and rights from the ground up to secure valid claims, utilizing expertise to transform seized properties into "profitable real estate."

Recognizing these efforts, Suwon City received the Excellence Award in the local tax category (Minister of the Interior and Safety Award) at the 15th Korea Local Finance Awards hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in November last year for "Collection of arrears through Real Estate Shake-up."

A Suwon City official stated, "Despite difficult collection conditions due to high inflation, high interest rates, high exchange rates, and increasing household debt, we achieved the result of 'collecting over 40 billion KRW for seven consecutive years' through active collection activities such as operating a task force to track high-amount delinquent taxpayers." He emphasized, "We will continue to discover new collection methods and make every effort to achieve 'over 40 billion KRW collected for eight consecutive years.'"