Gwangjin District's "KakaoTalk Acquisition Tax Chatbot" Wins Top Award for Proactive Administration in Seoul

Tax Department 1 Reduces Civil Inquiry Response Time by 80%

Gwangjin District in Seoul (District Mayor Kim Kyungho) announced on September 7 that the "Real Estate Acquisition Tax Information Chatbot" by the Tax Department 1 received the top excellence award in the autonomous district category at the "2026 Second Half Outstanding Proactive Administration Case Contest" hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Gwangjin District Office Building. Provided by Gwangjin District.

This chatbot was developed to reduce repetitive civil complaints caused by complex acquisition tax regulations and exemption requirements, and to prevent taxpayer reporting errors. The project was highly praised for being built in-house on the KakaoTalk platform—directly coded and utilizing AI technology by a single government employee without any outsourcing.

The chatbot features a "9-Question Self-Diagnosis Service." Taxpayers can determine their eligibility for acquisition tax exemptions on their own before filing, simply by answering a few questions on KakaoTalk.

After the service was implemented, the average response time for each civil inquiry was cut by about 80%, from 10 minutes to 2 minutes. By leveraging existing staff and technology instead of allocating additional budget, the project also minimized financial burden.

In the local public institution category, Gwangjin District Facilities Management Corporation received an encouragement award for its "Mobile Library Service." The initiative was recognized for converting an aging official vehicle into a mobile library and providing reading opportunities to residents who have difficulty accessing traditional libraries.

Kim Kyungho, Mayor of Gwangjin District, stated, "The efforts of staff who actively contributed ideas and took action on the ground to resolve the inconveniences of residents have borne fruit," and added, "We will continue to expand proactive and creative administration in ways that residents can truly experience."

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