The National Tax Service on the 15th began a public auction process for shares worth hundreds of billions of won held by Kwon Hyuk, chair of Sido Group, who has not paid taxes close to 400 billion won. It is the first attempt at a large-scale recovery of Kwon's delinquent taxes. Earlier, the National Tax Service seized some of Kwon's assets, but the amount recovered there reportedly fell far short of the expected proceeds from the share sale.
According to ChosunBiz's reporting, the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) on this day initiated a public auction process for 670,000 shares of Daesang Heavy Industries held by Melbo International, a corporation related to Chair Kwon. Daesang Heavy Industries is unlisted, and the value of Kwon's shares is assessed at 21 billion won.
Chair Kwon Hyuk ranks No. 1 among individual high-value tax delinquents at the National Tax Service (based on last year). In 2011, the National Tax Service notified him of an additional assessment of 410.1 billion won in taxes including comprehensive income tax, but Kwon did not pay and held out. Kwon later filed a tax appeal lawsuit against the National Tax Service, and the ruling finalized two years ago ordered him to pay most of the additional assessed amount.
Even after the National Tax Service secured a final court ruling, it was not easy to recover the delinquent taxes from Chair Kwon's property. This is said to be because a substantial portion of the property is in the names of corporations in tax havens. In addition, multiple companies are entangled with the vessels, making the process for sale and recovery complicated.
If the sale of shares worth hundreds of billions of won held by Chair Kwon goes through this time, it will enable the first large-scale recovery of the delinquent taxes. A National Tax Service official said, "Going forward, through international cooperation, we will actively recover delinquent taxes from assets held in tax havens as well."