A district court has ruled that about 14.6 billion won of the roughly 90 billion won in corporate tax imposed on Asiana Airlines over the 2016 sale of Kumho Terminal should be canceled.
The Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 8 (presiding judge Yang Soon-joo) on the 24th ruled at the sentencing hearing for the lawsuit Asiana Airlines filed against the head of the Gangseo Tax Office to cancel the corporate tax assessments, saying, "We cancel the portion exceeding about 76.6 billion won of the corporate tax imposed on Asiana Airlines for the 2016 fiscal year in January 2022 and March 2022 by the Gangseo Tax Office." This cancels about 14.6 billion won out of the 91.3 billion won in corporate tax the Gangseo Tax Office imposed on Asiana Airlines.
Kumho Terminal is an express bus terminal operator, and in April 2016 Asiana Airlines sold 100% of the Kumho Terminal shares it held to Kumho Enterprise for about 270 billion won. Kumho Enterprise was a special-purpose company (SPC) wholly owned by former Kumho Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo.
After controversy arose over a low-price sale of Kumho Terminal, the tax authorities conducted a tax audit of Asiana Airlines. As a result, the Gangseo Tax Office assessed the value of the Kumho Terminal shares held by Asiana Airlines at about 570 billion won.
Accordingly, the Gangseo Tax Office viewed Asiana Airlines as having transferred the Kumho Terminal shares at a low price and imposed a total of 91.3 billion won in corporate tax in two rounds, in January 2022 and March 2022. At the time, the tax authorities judged that Asiana Airlines had improperly underreported taxes and also imposed an additional tax for this. Asiana Airlines contested this and filed the lawsuit.
The court ruled that "Asiana Airlines' transfer of Kumho Terminal shares to Kumho Enterprise constitutes a low-price transfer of an asset, so applying the denial of unfair act calculation provisions to Asiana Airlines is lawful."
However, the court said, "Applying the additional tax for fraudulent underreporting in this regard is unlawful," and added, "We cancel that portion of the Gangseo Tax Office's disposition." The court said, "Given that there is no indication Asiana Airlines fabricated or forged the basic materials for calculating corporate tax, it is difficult to see that it engaged in affirmative acts that made the imposition or collection of taxes impossible or significantly difficult, so it does not fall under the imposition of an additional tax for fraudulent underreporting."
Meanwhile, in the appellate trial of the case in which the former chairman was indicted on charges including breach of trust for selling Kumho Terminal shares at a low price and unfairly supporting a private company, the court recently acquitted him of those charges.
At that time, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 2 (presiding judge Kim Jong-ho) said, "The 270 billion won sale price either properly reflected the value of Kumho Terminal shares or, at least, was not a price set markedly lower than the share value," adding, "It is difficult to conclude that the sale of Kumho Terminal shares caused Asiana Airlines any loss."