[2026 Parliamentary Audit] Amid criticism of tax audit abuse, NTS says, "Tax administration is more politically neutral than ever"

At the National Assembly’s audit of the Finance and Economy Planning Committee on October 13, opposition lawmakers accused the National Tax Service of abusing tax audits at the Blue House’s direction. National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Kwang-hyun said, “Tax audits are conducted in accordance with established principles,” adding that “tax administration is more politically neutral than ever.”

Yonhap News Agency

At the committee’s audit that day, People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Sang-hoon asked about “repeated instances of the National Tax Service launching tax audits after the president singles out a particular company.” Lim replied, “Whether it is the president, the National Assembly or the media, we take action whenever we determine that it is something the National Tax Service should do.”

Ahn also said the National Tax Service commissioner should not take orders from the president or give the impression that he is eyeing a return to the National Assembly in the next term. Lim responded, “I have never done that,” adding, “Even among the issues raised by opposition lawmakers during last year’s parliamentary audit, we acted on those we determined the National Tax Service should address.”

Lim also said, “We strive to conduct tax audits with restraint and keep them to a minimum.” He added, “The National Tax Service frequently holds briefings to prevent violations. The intent is to tell people that we are looking into these areas, so they should be careful going forward and avoid being penalized.”

Yoon Young-seok, a lawmaker from the same party, also raised questions about recent tax audits involving Coupang and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. “I don’t know whether the president’s remarks prompted follow-up action or whether there were actual allegations,” Yoon said. “Politically motivated tax audits are a backward practice that must not be allowed and should be eradicated.”

In response, Lim said, “It is absolutely out of the question to set quotas for tax collection, and we have also removed tax collection results from the criteria used in various evaluations.” He added, “We are doing our utmost to maintain the political neutrality of tax audits. We conduct investigations based on the allegations, and there are also cases where people feel they have been treated unfairly.”

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