[Exclusive] Government to Fill the 'Blind Spot' in Self-Employed Statistics

Monthly Sales Analysis of Small Business Owners
Plan to Establish Next Year's Statistical System
Key to Success: Persuading the National Tax Service for 'Information Provision'

The government has decided to establish a statistical system to track the monthly sales of self-employed business owners. This decision comes amid ongoing diagnoses that small-scale self-employed individuals are being pushed to the brink due to prolonged high interest rates and high inflation causing sluggish domestic demand, but there has been a lack of official indicators that can quickly grasp the concrete business conditions.

A closure notice is posted in front of a restaurant on a street near Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where pharmacies and restaurants are located. The owner said that the restaurant, which had been in business for 41 years, is closing due to the inability to withstand the economic downturn. Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and related ministries on the 30th, the government will begin work next year to produce monthly sales statistics for small business owners. The government plans to hire personnel and build the statistical system starting in the second half of next year. The production of statistics will be handled by the Small Enterprise Policy Research Center under the Small Enterprise and Market Service.

A government official explained, “Although there have been criticisms that self-employed businesses are collapsing, there was a lack of meaningful indicators that could quickly and accurately diagnose the current situation, such as how much sales have actually decreased.” He added, “The Small Business Survey announced annually by Statistics Korea is based on the previous year’s survey and reflects past conditions, so it tends to be somewhat delayed.” The latest Small Business Survey results, announced by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, were released in December last year for the 2022 survey.

The Small Business Monthly Outlook Business Survey Index (BSI), which is published monthly by the Small Enterprise and Market Service, is also a subjective indicator based on perceived economic conditions, so it has limitations in accurately grasping changes in sales. Another monthly indicator referenced in policy production, the Employment Trends by Statistics Korea, is limited to tracking the number of self-employed individuals. A representative from the Small Enterprise Policy Research Center said, “Until now, it was impossible to purchase sales data from credit card companies, and it was difficult to obtain tax-reported sales data from the National Tax Service, so there were limitations in understanding the situation.”

Accordingly, from next year, the government plans to create a system that can aggregate and track the monthly sales of small business owners. To this end, starting in the second half of next year, the government will purchase related sales data from private credit card companies while also negotiating with the National Tax Service. It will also recruit specialized personnel to realize this. They will be able to purchase card company data and process it to produce related statistics.

However, persuading the National Tax Service will be key to producing precise statistics. Currently, the Framework Act on National Taxes prohibits tax officials from providing taxpayer information. Administrative agencies like the government are granted exceptions as needed, but the law only states that information “may be provided.” Therefore, the outcome depends on the National Tax Service’s decision. A National Tax Service official said, “Data is provided only in exceptional cases such as the National Health Insurance Service,” and added, “Since this is sensitive data, it will be necessary to judge whether sufficient information protection measures to prevent leaks are in place.”