$260B Swiped From Tax Dodgers by Korean Government

Estimated read time 2 min read
  • The amount of crypto assets seized from South Koreans accused of dodging taxes has reached almost 260 billion Korean won.
  • The Korean government is drawing up plans to impose income tax rules on cryptocurrency trading.

The Korean government has carried out investigations for the past two years. They began taking over virtual assets from people accused of tax evasion. More than 260 billion Won worth $184 million was confiscated with 12,000 people being accused of shirking taxes.

A doctor and a celebrious TV host are among the moneyed tax evaders in South Korea. The cases include a distinguished home shopping channel host who owed the Korean government Won20 million in tax but held $500 million in Ethereum. Another case is that of a resident owner who possesses 30 residences and owed Won30 million in income tax and held $1.1 billion in crypto assets. A third case is a doctor who failed to pay Won17 million in long delayed taxes but owned $2.8 billion in Bitcoin.

If the tax dodgers did not pay their taxes willingly, insolvency and liquidation procedures are to follow, authorities say confiscation procedures have been finalized.

Some of the tax payers opted to keep their obligation in an attempt to keep their crypto investments. According to the Korean law, when the authority seizes an individual’s exchange account or their assets, the coins are sold at the current exchange rate if the overdue tax is not paid.

The Financial Service of Korea has set regulation that all crypto exchanges are supposed to partner with local banks and open real name accounts for the customers they have. The result of this move has been negative, since local lenders are resisting the partnering contract with the fear of being exposed of past money laundering.

One of the regulations postponed by the government was paying 20% tax on income generated from cryptocurrency transactions in excess of Won25 million (177,550) for two years. The regulation is set to be implemented in January 2023.

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