Gwangju Buk-gu Selected as an Excellent Institution for Taxpayer Rights Enhancement, the Only One in Gwangju

On the 6th, Buk-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City announced that it was the only local government in Gwangju to be selected as an excellent institution in the '2023 Local Taxpayer Rights Promotion Best Practice Competition' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The Local Taxpayer Rights Promotion Best Practice Competition has been held annually since 2019 to discover and share excellent cases of 'Local Taxpayer Protection Officers' operated by local governments to protect taxpayers, aiming to activate systems that promote taxpayer rights.

In this year's competition, 13 local governments were finally selected as excellent local governments after a first round of document evaluation and a second round of on-site presentation evaluation for cases from 79 participating local governments.

Buk-gu submitted the case titled 'There Are No Limits to the Role of Local Taxpayer Protection Officers' and won the Encouragement Award, the only one in Gwangju, securing a financial incentive (special grant) of 50 million KRW.

Buk-gu's taxpayer protection officer case received high marks for expanding the role of taxpayer protection officers beyond the local tax field to include civil complaint areas such as fines and charges, which taxpayers often confuse with local taxes, thereby protecting the actual rights of taxpayers.

Additionally, the 'Visiting Local Taxpayer Protection Officer' system, operated in collaboration with the Residents' Grievance Committee and the National Tax Service, was praised as a model case that actively resolved complex tax administration grievance complaints on-site, enhancing the convenience of complainants.

A Buk-gu official said, "This selection as an excellent institution is meaningful as it is an achievement in the field of resolving residents' inconveniences, which has been set as the top priority of the district administration since the 7th local government." He added, "We will continue to do our best to resolve taxpayer complaints so that taxpayers do not suffer unreasonable burdens or rights violations amid difficult economic conditions."