According to business industry sources on Sunday, Jay Y. Lee, along with his mother Hong Ra-hee and sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, recently finalized the last installment of inheritance taxes first reported in April 2021 following the death of the late chairman in October 2020.
The estate included stakes in key affiliates such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung C&T, along with extensive real estate holdings.
At the time of the filing, the family stated that “paying taxes is a natural duty of citizens,” pledging to fulfill the obligation in accordance with legal principles. Using South Korea’s installment payment system, the family paid the tax in six installments over five years.
The 12 trillion won levy exceeded the government’s total inheritance tax revenue of 8.2 trillion won collected in 2024, making it one of the largest inheritance tax payments ever recorded globally.
The completion of the payment also marks a sharp reversal from the uncertainty surrounding Samsung’s succession transition in 2020 and 2021.
At the time of Lee Kun-hee’s death, the combined market capitalization of Samsung Group’s major listed affiliates was estimated at roughly 500 trillion won to 600 trillion won ($430 billion to $520 billion at the time), weighed down by the COVID-19 pandemic, a prolonged semiconductor downturn and leadership uncertainty surrounding the succession process.
Samsung Electronics alone was valued at roughly 350 trillion won to 400 trillion won during that period.
When the inheritance tax bill was announced in 2021, some analysts questioned whether the Lee family would be forced to dilute its control over Samsung through large-scale share sales to meet the payment obligations.
Instead, the global AI semiconductor rally fundamentally transformed the conglomerate’s fortunes.
Today, the Samsung empire’s combined listed market value has swollen to roughly 1,500 trillion won to 1,600 trillion won ($1.1 trillion), meaning the group’s value has nearly tripled in less than six years as Samsung Electronics emerged as one of the world’s core AI infrastructure suppliers.
Samsung Electronics alone has approached or exceeded a market capitalization of 1,000 trillion won during peak periods amid explosive demand for high-bandwidth memory chips and AI data-center semiconductors.
The AI-driven rally sharply improved both asset valuations and dividend income, allowing the family to preserve most of its core holdings while completing the unprecedented tax burden. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Lee family’s combined fortune climbed to about $45.5 billion this year from roughly $20 billion levels during the succession crisis.
Samsung’s economic influence has also expanded alongside the rally. Combined revenue from seven key Samsung affiliates reached the equivalent of 19.3 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product in 2025, up from 15.1 percent a decade earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Alongside the tax payments, the Samsung family pursued one of the country’s largest private philanthropic campaigns rooted in the late chairman’s long-standing philosophy of “contribution to humanity.”
In 2021, the family pledged 1 trillion won in medical donations, including 700 billion won to the National Medical Center to strengthen infectious disease preparedness and support construction of South Korea’s first dedicated national infectious disease hospital, scheduled for completion in 2030.
Another 300 billion won was donated to Seoul National University Hospital for treatment of pediatric cancer and rare diseases, with Samsung saying roughly 28,000 children benefited from the program over the past five years.
The family also donated about 23,000 artworks and cultural assets — collectively known as the “Lee Kun-hee Collection” — to institutions including the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
The collection, estimated by the art world at up to 10 trillion won at the time of donation, has since toured globally, including exhibitions at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, with another scheduled at the British Museum later this year.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.