144 Billion KRW Increase Compared to Same Period Last Year
Focused Management of Large Tax Arrears and Tracking of Family Hidden Assets
Seoul City collected 202.1 billion KRW in overdue local taxes as of the end of July this year, marking a record high.
The city announced on the 13th that it had collected 91% of this year’s target amount of 222.2 billion KRW by the end of July, achieving the highest collection performance since the establishment of the 38 Tax Collection Division in 2001. This amount is 14.4 billion KRW more than the same period last year (187.7 billion KRW).
The city cited focused management of high-amount defaulters, tracking of family-hidden assets, thorough investigations into tax evasion activities, and detailed inspections of long-term seized real estate as the reasons behind the improved performance.
In the first half of the year, a detailed investigation was conducted on 65.5 billion KRW in overdue taxes from 655 high-amount defaulters owing more than 100 million KRW each, focusing collection efforts on those with high collection potential, resulting in a total collection of 31.8 billion KRW by the end of July.
The city also explained that it worked to prevent tax evasion activities such as deliberately avoiding inheritance or failing to register inherited property to escape tax payments. In addition to defaulters, investigations into family-hidden assets were conducted, and when hidden assets were discovered, civil lawsuits such as cancellation suits, subrogation registration, and mortgage cancellation were filed.
Especially this year, the city strengthened tracking activities with the goal of "one investigator, two lawsuits." As of last month, the city notified 13 cases of cancellation suits for fraudulent acts, 111 cases of voluntary cancellation of mortgages and other rights, and 44 cases of subrogation registration for unregistered inheritance. Furthermore, civil lawsuits were filed for a total overdue amount of 4.2 billion KRW, including 11 cancellation suits for fraudulent acts and 25 subrogation registration requests for inheritance.
The city also collected 8.4 billion KRW by conducting a comprehensive investigation of bonds owned by defaulters and providing the information to autonomous districts for collection purposes. Through major bond investigations, the city collected 3.2 billion KRW from seizure and collection of financial claims from first and second-tier financial institutions, 2.1 billion KRW from seizure and collection of securities and funds, and 3.1 billion KRW from seizure of court deposits.
For vehicles with unpaid automobile taxes, 240 city and district officials were deployed to conduct seizure and towing operations throughout Seoul, collecting 4.6 billion KRW.
Additionally, since April this year, the city has immediately requested public auctions from the Korea Asset Management Corporation for 6,052 long-term seized real estate properties over 10 years old if there is a practical benefit to selling them. If there are senior mortgages or provisional seizures due to unsecured claims that have not been executed, cancellation lawsuits are filed to proceed with the public auction.
Kim Jin-man, Director of the Seoul City Finance Bureau, said, "Seoul City will continue to track and collect from unscrupulous high-amount defaulters who evade tax payments, striving to create a social atmosphere where citizens who faithfully pay taxes are respected."
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