Task Force Set Up for High Income Earners

A new task force consisting of 500 personnel will be created in each regional tax office in the first half of this year to investigate incomes and impose taxes on self-employed and high-income earners such as medical doctors and lawyers.

The task force will be set up in each tax office located in the Gangnam area where many such professionals are located, in order to enhance tax investigations on high-income earners. The National Tax Service (NTS) announced the plan for the enhanced tax investigation system at its national revenue officials` meeting on April 28.

The new plan will be implemented so that professionals such as medical doctors, lawyers and financial accountants who evade paying taxes can be investigated by task force teams set up at regional tax offices in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Daejon and Kwangju.

Each task force team will be made up of 7 to 8 investigators who will look into the incomes of professionals on a continuous basis. The Seoul Regional Tax Service, the largest among the regional offices will set up three investigation teams to perform the necessary work.

In Seoul`s Gangnam area, an district with a great number of high income earners, the team will be created for each `dong` (Seocho, Yeoksam, Banpo, Samsung and Gangnam).

The NTS decided to do its utmost to prevent such high-income professionals from tax-evasion by investigating and prosecuting offenders. It has also decided that it would restrict any outside influence to prevent any possible contact between tax-payers and investigators which may cause bias in the course of investigations.

Jin-Hup Song jinhup@donga.com