This file photo shows the buildings of South Korea’s major companies in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — A handful of top earners among South Korean companies turned out to have paid the majority of the nation’s corporate taxes.
According to the data that Rep. Yun Chang-hyun of the main opposition People Power Party received from the National Tax Service, the combined income of the nation’s 838,008 companies totaled 5,272.11 trillion won (US$4.53 trillion) last year, with their payment of corporate taxes estimated at 53.57 trillion won.
Among them, the upper 0.1 percent (838 companies) achieved combined revenue of 1,875.96 trillion won and paid a total of 32.63 trillion won in corporate taxes.
The top 0.1 percent accounted for 35.6 percent of total revenues and 60.9 percent of total corporate taxes.
The upper 1 percent (8,380 companies) recorded combined revenue of 2,765.92 trillion won and paid 44.31 trillion won in corporate taxes.
The upper 1 percent accounted for 52.5 percent of total revenues and 82.7 percent of total corporate taxes.
The upper 10 percent or 83,800 companies chalked up combined revenue of 3,640.89 trillion won and paid 51.50 trillion won in corporate taxes. In other words, they accounted for 69.1 percent of total revenues and 96.1 percent of corporate taxes.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
