Shaman Jeong Ho-geun (50), who is a former actor, recently revealed that he had not reported his income for five years and had paid the omitted taxes in two instances.
According to Taxes Journal on the 12th, Jeong Ho-geun operated a shrine without registering as a business until 2021 and did not report his income, which led the National Tax Service to include him in a tax investigation. The Seongbuk Tax Office and Seoul Regional Tax Service imposed the omitted taxes that occurred from 2017 to 2021 in two instances.
The Seongbuk Tax Office confirmed Jeong's income earned from shamanistic activities between 2018 and 2021 during a personal comprehensive tax investigation in 2022, imposing value-added taxes and comprehensive income taxes. Additionally, they mandated the registration of the shrine as a fortune-telling business.
Last year, the Seoul Regional Tax Service identified income from the first half of 2017 to 2018 in an additional audit and issued a supplemental notice for value-added taxes spanning one year and six months.
Jeong Ho-geun stated, "I thought the money received was considered donations because the shrine is a religious facility," and noted, "I had no awareness that it was subject to taxation and merely followed the practices of other shamans and advice from non-experts."
He also said, "I had no intention of evading taxes," adding that "if the delay in additional tax penalties had been fully reflected during the initial tax investigation, it might have been avoided," requesting some of the taxation to be canceled, but it was not accepted.
He settled the first tax amount several years ago and, for the initial action by the Seoul Tax Office, made a significant payment using a loan, with the remaining amount settled through partitioning. He is now said to have paid all taxes.
He remarked, "It's merely a mistake stemming from a lack of tax knowledge," adding, "In the future, I will responsibly fulfill my tax obligations as a public figure and lead an exemplary life."
Jeong Ho-geun debuted in 1984 as an MBC public recruitment talent and appeared in dramas such as "Wangcho", "Heo Jun", and KBS 1TV's "Gwanggaeto the Great". He has been working as a shaman since 2015 and is currently operating the YouTube channel "Jeong Ho-geun's Life Shrine."