Just by providing 'Mobile Return Guidance'... Gangnam District Office's revenue increases, taxpayers avoid additional penalties

Supplementing Formal 'Property Tax Public Notice Delivery Issue' through Proactive Administration
Collected 5.9 Billion KRW Property Tax in July via Mobile Payment Notification Service
Expanded Implementation to Other Non-Tax Revenue Collection Departments

Gangnam-gu Office building.

Gangnam-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Jo Seong-myeong) announced on the 12th that it collected 5.9 billion KRW by implementing a real-time mobile payment guidance service using KakaoTalk for delinquent taxpayers who experienced electronic delivery errors and returned registered mail during the property tax imposition last July.

According to Gangnam-gu, this is the first proactive administrative case nationwide to implement practical public notification using mobile devices for those who might have missed the payment deadline due to non-receipt of the notice.

While most local governments have introduced KakaoTalk notification services in administrative services mainly to inform about delinquent taxes, the district saw this notification service as a solution to the formal public notification issues it had faced. They judged that if undelivered cases were properly notified to the recipients, unintended delinquencies could be prevented.

Notices sent by registered mail are often not received directly by recipients due to reasons such as dual-income households or long business trips. The post office stores these mails for 10 days before returning them. The district posts this information on its website and office bulletin boards as public notification, and after 14 days, it is considered delivered. Taxpayers unaware of this public notification process had to unfairly pay additional taxes.

Electronic notices, introduced to reduce paper notices, allow recipients to receive notices via mobile text messages and email addresses and receive a tax credit benefit of 800 KRW. However, since recipients must update their personal information themselves, missing this step can result in undelivered notices. In such cases, the notice is treated as returned, and a paper notice is reprinted and sent to the address.

In June, the district guided 3,900 people who had delivery errors to update their mobile phone numbers and email addresses using the KakaoTalk notification service to improve electronic notice accuracy.

After the property tax notice in July, the district conducted six rounds of mobile guidance for 8,334 cases of electronic delivery errors and returned registered mail for real-time delinquent taxpayers. Along with messages informing that the property tax had been notified, a link to ETAX was provided for convenient payment.

As a result, 4,283 undelivered cases were paid within the deadline, amounting to 5.9 billion KRW. This achievement ranks first in payment collection rate (by case) within the payment period among Seoul’s autonomous districts. Additionally, the district took care of 1,250 people whose payment deadlines were extended due to undelivered notices (686 for July property tax, 564 for June automobile tax). While conducting public notification for payment extension, the district used this notification service instead of merely posting on the website.

Gangnam-gu stated, “This service drastically reduces complaints caused by undelivered notices and saves budget on printing and delivery costs due to reissuing notices.” The cost of registered mail is 2,530 KRW per case, but the mobile notification service costs 187 KRW, saving 12 million KRW in property tax notices this time. The district plans to expand this service to other non-tax revenue collection departments.

District Mayor Jo Seong-myeong said, “We implemented taxpayer-centered proactive administration by conducting mobile notification services not only for delinquency guidance but also for real-time returned notices. We will do our best to minimize taxpayer inconvenience and manage revenue efficiently to serve as a model for other autonomous districts.”