Suwon City Prevents Tax Delinquency and Citizen Damages Caused by Misuse of Trust Systems through Prompt Seizures

Gyeonggi Suwon City is actively pursuing “prompt seizures” to prevent damage to citizens caused by tax delinquency and asset concealment through the misuse of trust systems.

Real estate trusts are a system in which the trustor (owner) transfers the ownership of real estate to a trustee (trust company), and the trustee manages, disposes of, or develops the real estate for specific purposes.

Properties held in trust are at heightened risk of being sold to third parties, such as through public auctions, so it is crucial to seize them as quickly as possible. By applying guidelines from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the city omits the typical notice of demand procedure (approximately one month) required for general delinquents. Instead, Suwon City immediately seizes the real estate held by trust companies as soon as payment is overdue following the notification of the property tax obligation, thereby fundamentally blocking the delinquent (trustor) from disposing of the property.

Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, is conducting a "Capacity Building Training for Trust Property Real Estate Seizure Officers" for the head of the tax collection team and officers in charge of real estate seizure. Provided by Suwon City

In the first half of this year, Suwon City designated 382 cases of trust property taxpayers and carried out 423 cases of real estate seizures related to trust property. The amount covered by public auction sales of real estate totaled 167 million won across 165 cases.

Suwon City plans to swiftly seize long-neglected multi-family and multi-unit trust properties to prevent secondary damage to citizens (such as in charter fraud cases) and address the problems of urban vacancy.

An official from Suwon City stated, “Recently, in Suwon, there has been a growing number of cases where trust systems are exploited in large-scale buildings and multi-family properties to evade large amounts of property tax, resulting in damages such as charter fraud for citizens. We are committed to quickly securing claims, eradicating habitual delinquency by trust companies, and upholding tax justice.”

Previously, on the 21st, Suwon City held a “Capacity Building Training for Officials in Charge of Trust Property Real Estate Seizure” for the tax department collection team leaders and real estate seizure officers of the four district offices. The training covered basic concepts of trust property and the history of changes in taxpayer obligations; examples of opportunistic trust contracts and the exploitation of “gaps in delinquent disposition”; and key considerations when seizing trust property real estate.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.