Incheon City has initiated the collection of overdue payments from high-income medical professionals through the seizure of medical fees. On the 26th, the city announced that it executed the seizure of medical fees totaling 865 million KRW from 22 delinquent medical professionals and collected 55 million KRW from 12 of them.
This measure targeted high-income medical professionals who had overdue local taxes of 500,000 KRW or more. The city conducted a thorough investigation of their medical fee records and provided opportunities for voluntary payment, but when payments were still not made, the city seized the medical fees.
Medical fees generally refer to the total amount paid by patients and the National Health Insurance Corporation for medical services such as consultations, tests, and surgeries provided by healthcare institutions. Typically, it is the amount that medical service providers receive from patients and the National Health Insurance Corporation.
Considering that the main source of income for delinquent medical professionals is the medical fees paid by the National Health Insurance Corporation, the city introduced this new method of seizure. Notably, even if a delinquent medical professional closes their practice, the seizure of payments from the corporation remains valid, and upon reopening, the seizure measures are immediately applied to prevent evasion of payment.
Dr. A, an orthopedic surgeon in Incheon, had overdue local income taxes amounting to 12 million KRW over the past two years. Despite Incheon City's persistent payment demands, he resisted by claiming he had no money to pay taxes, but this time, the full overdue amount was collected through the seizure and collection of medical fees.
Additionally, a Korean medicine doctor operating Clinic B in Gyeonggi Province had overdue taxes totaling 140 million KRW over the past three years. After Incheon City collected 16.74 million KRW through the seizure of medical fees, he promised to pay the overdue amount in installments of 5 million KRW per month.
An official from Incheon City stated, "We will continue to actively utilize new collection techniques such as the seizure of medical fees to track and collect assets from malicious defaulters, thereby realizing tax justice."
Meanwhile, to foster a sound tax payment culture, the city plans to actively promote preferential treatment for diligent taxpayers. In November, the city will select 1,000 diligent taxpayers and provide benefits such as preferential interest rates and fee discounts at Shinhan and NongHyup banks, reduction of credit guarantee fees for small businesses and merchants by the Incheon Credit Guarantee Foundation (for one year), exemption from local tax audits (for three years), and exemption from local tax collection deferral guarantees (once for two years).
Diligent taxpayers are individuals residing in Incheon or organizations/corporations with business locations in the city who have no local tax arrears for 10 years and have paid at least two full payments on time each year. They are selected through recommendations from districts/counties and the city’s local tax review committee.
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