[2026 Parliamentary Audit] Lim Leeja: "90% of the National Tax Service's Delinquency Management Unit collections came from small-scale tax delinquents"

"Number of Taxpayers and Amounts Paid by Region and Payment Bracket by the Tax Delinquency Management Unit"
"High-value delinquents owing 50 million won or more account for just 0.32%"

It has been pointed out that 90% of those targeted for collection by the National Tax Service's Tax Delinquency Management Unit, launched in March this year, were small-scale, livelihood-related tax delinquents owing less than 5 million won.

According to a report titled "Number of Taxpayers and Amounts Paid by Region and Payment Bracket by the Tax Delinquency Management Unit (March-August)," which Lim Leeja of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee, received from the National Tax Service, the unit completed phone and in-person status checks on 214,346 people from March through the end of August and collected a total of 140.071 billion won.

People Power Party lawmaker Im Ija (center), a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee. Photo by Yoon Dongju.

By payment amount, 30,790 taxpayers owing less than 1 million won (53% of the total) paid 11.824 billion won (8.44% of the total). In the bracket of 1 million won to less than 5 million won, 21,550 taxpayers (37.10%) paid 46.993 billion won (33.55%). Rep. Lim criticized the results, saying, "Looking at the payment results collected by the Tax Delinquency Management Unit, 90.1% of those from whom payments were collected owed less than 5 million won, while high-value delinquents owing 50 million won or more account for just 0.32%. I question whether squeezing money out of ordinary people with small-scale, livelihood-related tax arrears is the National Tax Service's idea of tax justice."

Rep. Lim continued, "The National Tax Service said it does not separately track the amounts owed by the 214,346 people it reported contacting by phone or visiting in person." She added, "The unit does not appear to be tracking the overall population it is supposed to manage, including how many people it is targeting and the total amount of delinquent taxes involved. Without a target, it cannot analyze its performance."

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