A recent analysis of tax data has revealed significant income disparities within South Korea’s professional sectors, with lawyers and accountants showing particularly pronounced inequality. (Image courtesy of Pixabay/CCL)
SEJONG, Oct. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – A recent analysis of tax data has revealed significant income disparities within South Korea’s professional sectors, with lawyers and accountants showing particularly pronounced inequality.
According to a report released on October 7 by Park Sung-hoon, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, the top 10% of earners in these professions accounted for approximately 80% of their respective markets’ income.
The analysis was based on value-added tax (VAT) declaration data for 2023, obtained from the National Tax Service. Physicians were excluded from the statistics due to VAT exemptions on medical services.
For lawyers, the total taxable income last year reached 8.72 trillion won, with the top 10% (905 declarations) accounting for 77.3% of this amount, or 6.74 trillion won.
Out of 9,045 tax declarations filed by law firms and individual lawyers, the average taxable income was 964 million won.
However, this average masked a significant divide: individual lawyers averaged about 450 million won, while law firms averaged 2.27 billion won.
The disparity was even more pronounced in the accounting sector. The top 10% of accountants (219 declarations) accounted for 79.8% of the total taxable income, which amounted to 5.97 trillion won.
Similar patterns of inequality were observed among architects and real estate appraisers, with the top 10% in each profession controlling around 70% of their market’s income.
The data also revealed that a substantial number of professionals reported very low incomes. In the legal profession, 22% of declarations showed monthly average incomes below 4 million won, with 697 reporting no income at all.
Patent attorneys emerged as the highest earners among the professional groups analyzed, with an average individual taxable income of 540 million won per year. They were followed by lawyers at 449 million won and accountants at 444 million won.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
