NTS collects balance of donation tax from Samsung`s Lee Jae-Yong

The government cracked down on conglomerates` irregular succession of property through new bonds.

The National Tax Service (NTS) announced Monday that it has collected the balance of the donation tax from Lee Jae-Yong, son of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-Hee, and five others with special relationships who were allowed to buy bonds with warrants (BWs) issued by Samsung SDS. The irregular succession of property through convertible bonds (CBs) or BWs has been controversial, but the government didn`t impose a tax on such irregularities.

Answering the question of Kang Woon-Tae, representative of the Democratic Millennium Party, Ahn Jung-Nam, head of the National Tax Service, said at the National Assembly`s finance-economy committee that the NTS already has investigated the donation tax, as accused by the People`s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and informed such a decision to relevant parties.

``We did investigated the trading of stocks when they were issued and found that they were offered at low prices by reviewing the legal conditions for taxation,`` Ahn said.

In particular, the office informed Lee Jae-Yong and others that it would impose a tax as posted if Samsung does not request review of legality prior to taxation. But he refused to disclose the amount of taxation as stipulated in the basic law on taxation.

Song In-Soo issong@donga.com