The agency said dozens of additional cases are still moving through international collection procedures, raising expectations that hundreds of millions of won more could be recovered.
According to the NTS on the 27th, since NTS Commissioner Im Gwang-hyeon took office in July last year, the agency has recovered 33.9 billion won in five cases over the past nine months through collection cooperation with tax authorities in three countries. The figure accounts for most of the cumulative results since 2015 — 37.2 billion won across 24 cases — as the agency says international cooperation is now producing tangible collection results.
The NTS said it uses two main channels to track overseas assets held by tax delinquents: information exchange and collection cooperation. It identifies overseas accounts and financial assets through automatic exchange of financial information with 119 countries, and obtains information on assets such as real estate through case-by-case requests with 163 countries.
When those efforts confirm where a delinquent’s overseas assets are located, the NTS proceeds with collection cooperation by asking the relevant country’s tax authority to carry out compulsory collection. The agency said Korea cannot directly enforce seizures abroad, so local tax authorities conduct attachment and collection on its behalf.
In one case, a foreign wealthy individual living overseas who had failed to pay taxes in Korea sold local assets and paid after cooperation with the person’s home-country tax authority began, the NTS said. In another, a foreign professional athlete who had worked in Korea left the country without filing taxes, but paid voluntarily through a representative in Korea after the athlete’s home-country financial account was identified.
The NTS also cited a case involving a foreign businessperson who had dispersed and concealed assets across multiple countries. After a third-country financial account was detected and collection cooperation was initiated, the case ended in voluntary payment.
For Korean nationals, the agency said it has recovered taxes by tracing accounts of overseas corporations operated under borrowed names and collecting the full deposits, or by using information exchange with countries where delinquents hold permanent residency to seize and collect from overseas accounts.
The NTS said it is expanding its methods by directly participating as a creditor in overseas bankruptcy proceedings and by attaching high-end homes abroad. In one case, a delinquent immediately signaled an intent to pay after a luxury home overseas was attached, it said.
An NTS official said shifting assets overseas while benefiting in Korea and failing to pay taxes leaves compliant taxpayers feeling deprived, undermines the foundation of public finances, and seriously damages fairness and justice in society. The official said the agency will mobilize all available tax enforcement capacity to respond strictly to malicious delinquents who evade their tax obligations.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.