High-Income Professionals Adept at Tax Avoidance | Be Korea-savvy

High-Income Professionals Adept at Tax Avoidance


According to the National Tax Service, the average portion of income omitted was 32.9 percent, after conducting a tax investigation on 270 professionals including doctors, lawyers, accountants and tax accountants.  (image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)

According to the National Tax Service, the average portion of income omitted was 32.9 percent, after conducting a tax investigation on 270 professionals including doctors, lawyers, accountants and tax accountants. (image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)

SEJONG, Sept. 7 (Korea Bizwire)A tax investigation into high-income professional workers such as lawyers and doctors showed that they turned out to have omitted an average of 330,000 won from every 1,000,000 won they made, and the overlooked amount is increasing.

According to the National Tax Service, the average portion of income omitted was 32.9 percent, after conducting a tax investigation on 270 professionals including doctors, lawyers, accountants and tax accountants. This means that if they earned 1 million won, they reported only 670,000 won as income, and left out about 330,000 won to avoid paying taxes.

The total annual income of the 270 that were investigated was 261.6 billion won, which is approximately 970 million won per person. The National Tax Service imposed a total of 123.2 billion won in taxes on them.

The National Tax Service emphasized that we should not expect that all professional workers misreport their income, as the investigation was conducted on 270 people who had a high chance of omitting income based on references and data.

Authorities say that the fact that high-income earners are hiding their income to pay lower taxes is proof that the supervision of management, investigation and punishment of the National Tax Service is weak, and that regulations need to be strengthened.

By Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)

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