(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — A man who wanted to buy his son an apartment unit in a suburb of Seoul without having to pay the mandatory gift tax that would came with the purchase has been tracked down by tax officials.
The man knew that if the unit was paid for under his son’s name, authorities would investigate the source of the funds since his son was without a stable income.
At the same time, he was unable to wire his son large sums of money as the transaction would also raise a red flag.
After much thought, the man came up with the idea of withdrawing money from ATMs and via bank tellers.
By withdrawing cash from his bank account on numerous occasions and depositing the money into his son’s account, he thought he could hide the “gift.”
The father and son would visit ATM machines frequently over extended periods to withdraw and deposit large sums of cash.
Eventually, the son was finally able to buy the real estate of his father’s dreams in the outskirts of Seoul.
Unfortunate for the father and son, their “trick” did not go unnoticed by tax officials, who hit the father-son duo with a gift tax totaling hundreds of millions of won.
According to cases of tax evasion revealed by the National Tax Service yesterday, the greatest number of tax evasion instances involved parents giving real estate properties as gifts to their children who did not enjoy high levels of income.
The tax official said that if anyone is suspected of evading taxes via non-transparent means, a swift tax investigation will be carried out with tax evaders being dealt with severely.
H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)
