[2026 National Assembly Audit] Arrears Management Team Collects 63.2 Billion Won in Cash... Lim Kwanghyun: "Results Reached 329% of Budget"

Finance and Economy Planning Committee Holds NTS Audit at Government Complex Sejong
Arrears Management Team Investigates 130 Trillion Won in Accumulated Tax Arrears
Malicious, High-Value Repeat Delinquents to Be Tracked Down and Pursued to the End..

The National Tax Service (NTS) has collected KRW 63.2 billion in cash through its Tax Delinquency Management Team, launched in March this year, delivering results worth more than four times its budget. The NTS has deployed a total of 10,000 status-check agents. For national tax delinquencies, it is conducting phone consultations alongside on-site checks and carrying out tailored collection measures for people facing financial hardship, among others. For deliberate payment evasion, it is conducting home searches, seizures and public auctions, lawsuits over fraudulent transfers, and tracing investigations.

On October 13, the NTS reported on its operations, including these measures, during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee at the Government Complex Sejong.

National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Kwanghyun speaks during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee at the Government Complex Sejong on the 13th. National Tax Service

◆Checking the status of KRW 130 trillion in accumulated arrears through the Tax Delinquency Management Team= The NTS is using the team to check the status of accumulated arrears totaling KRW 130 trillion. NTS Commissioner Lim Kwanghyun said, "In addition to the 500 people hired in March this year, we hired another 9,500 in the second half of the year using a supplementary budget, bringing the total to 10,000 status-check agents conducting nationwide checks on tax delinquents. From March to July this year, we collected KRW 63.2 billion in national taxes in cash, achieving results equivalent to 329% of the budget allocated, which was KRW 19.2 billion."

For national taxes, the NTS classifies delinquents according to whether they are facing financial hardship, temporary difficulty making payments, or deliberately evading payment, and conducts tailored collection measures. For non-tax government revenue, it is gradually expanding status checks, starting with KRW 1.1 trillion in police fines owed by 2.95 million people and extending to non-tax revenue collected by other agencies. The NTS is also encouraging and guiding people to pay, while connecting them with welfare services.

◆Centralizing collection of non-tax revenue arrears under the NTS= The NTS is also seeking to reform national revenue management through the integrated collection of non-tax government revenue. Under the inefficient system, in which individual agencies (64 ministries and more than 4,500 institutions) collect non-tax revenue separately under some 300 laws, arrears have continued to rise, from KRW 13.3 trillion in 2020 to KRW 16.2 trillion in 2024.

To enact the Act on the Collection and Management of Non-Tax Revenue Arrears by the end of this year, the NTS will provide full support for the legislative process, including explaining the bill, holding public hearings, and facilitating subcommittee reviews. In line with the enactment of the integrated collection law, it also plans to strengthen the organizational functions required and assign specialists with the NTS's collection capabilities and expertise.

The NTS will also build a database of non-tax revenue arrears for each delinquent by obtaining information on delinquents from individual agencies through interagency memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and having the Tax Delinquency Management Team conduct status checks. It plans to secure funding to build an information system and launch an integrated management system next year that will link notices and delinquency information on non-tax revenue with relevant agencies in real time.

National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Kwang-hyun announces the results of the Task Force for Special Response to High-Value Tax Delinquencies at the Government Complex Sejong on the 7th. National Tax Service

◆Cracking down on unfair tax evasion that has stirred public outrage= The NTS plans to thoroughly investigate and crack down on antisocial real estate tax evasion, including low-priced property sales intended to avoid higher capital gains taxes for multiple-home owners, sham transactions, and improper gifts between related parties. It will also focus its investigative resources on irregular tax evasion that undermines capital market order, such as artificial stock price manipulation and tunneling by listed companies.

The NTS will continue to scrutinize tax evasion involving the private use of corporate assets, including high-value homes and supercars owned by companies, and recover illicit gains. In addition to conducting a comprehensive review of high-value homes owned by corporations, the NTS has expanded the scope of its reviews to include officetels, leased homes, and land not used for business purposes.

The NTS has also achieved specific results through its Special Response Task Force on High-Value Delinquent Taxpayers (TF). Through the TF, launched early this year, the NTS conducted an intensive investigation into overseas assets concealed by Kwon Hyuk, chairman of Sido Group. As a result, Kwon agreed to pay his entire personal tax debt of KRW 393.8 billion. He first paid KRW 100 billion in cash. For the remaining balance, he submitted a payment plan and offered five ships as collateral. The NTS is currently assessing whether the collateral is adequate. The KRW 100 billion Kwon has already paid is the largest amount of delinquent tax the NTS has collected to date.

Commissioner Lim said, "We will establish a special task force linking tax audits and delinquency tracing to simultaneously investigate allegations of deliberate asset concealment and tax evasion by malicious high-value delinquents. We will expand targeted analyses of new methods of concealing assets, such as high-value delinquents' safe-deposit boxes and the creation of false mortgage liens, and conduct intensive tracing investigations, including joint searches with local governments and the Korea Customs Service."

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