Current status of national tax collection expenses. /Courtesy of National Tax Service
Current status of national tax collection expenses. /Courtesy of National Tax Service

The National Tax Service reported on the 28th that the tax revenue under its jurisdiction is expected to be 328.4 trillion won in 2024, a 2.1% decrease from the previous year’s 335.7 trillion won. The total tax collection expenditure incurred was 1.9 trillion won. Tax collection expenditure refers to the total amount spent by the National Tax Service annually for securing tax revenue, including labor costs.

This means that 0.59 won was required to secure 100 won of tax revenue. A National Tax Service official noted, "The overall tax collection expenditure is decreasing as the National Tax Service's budget is increasing at a slower rate compared to tax revenue growth."

Dividing the tax revenue collected by the National Tax Service by the number of employees estimates that each employee secured 16 billion won in tax revenue. This is an increase of 79.1% compared to 9 billion won per employee in 2010.

In 2024, the regional tax revenue was highest in Seoul, amounting to 115.4 trillion won. This was followed by Gyeonggi with 50.6 trillion won and Busan with 23.9 trillion won.

When ranking the 133 tax offices nationwide by tax revenue scale, the Namdaemun Tax Office secured first place with 18.1 trillion won. It was followed by the Busan Suyeong Tax Office in second place with 15.5 trillion won and the Yeongdeungpo Tax Office in third place with 13.8 trillion won.

The Namdaemun and Yeongdeungpo Tax Offices oversee financial institutions with a large proportion of corporate tax. The Suyeong Tax Office supervises the Korea Securities Depository, which has a significant proportion of the security transaction tax.

As of the end of last year, outstanding national tax debt was 19.4 trillion won, and the amount of cash collected from outstanding debt was 12.1 trillion won, an increase compared to the previous year's figures of 17.7 trillion won and 11.7 trillion won.

The amount collected from reports of hidden assets last year was 13 billion won, an increase of 1 billion won compared to the previous year's 12 billion won. The number of reports last year was 1,855, an increase of about 500 compared to the previous year's 1,364.