Through Reviews on Tax Reports Made By Income Earners From Property Lease

The nation`s tax agency will carry out comprehensive tax investigations on some 150,000 people who made money on property leases last year.

The National Tax Service will receive consolidated income tax reports from around 250,000 people with income from business operations, property leases, dividends, and personal services by the end of this month. In particular, the tax agency will carry out thorough reviews on whether tax reports were made legally by those 150,000 people with high-priced houses, people mostly likely having made money off of their property leases.

Kim Jae-chun, director of the Income Tax Office, explained the tax agency`s decision saying that comprehensive reviews on tax reports by those who own over 2 houses or own high-priced real estate would be made because these people are considered more suspect.

The National Tax Agency sent a letter to some 250,000 people who failed to report double incomes made through other forms of employment. The letters intended to ask for an honest reporting of final earned income statements with the tax service.

If these 250,000 income earners fail to report their true incomes by the end of the month, they will be fined 20% additional tax on their original income for incorrectly reporting their incomes and will have to pay another 10.95% in additional tax for failing to pay taxes. However, as the due date (May 31) falls on a Saturday when all financial institutions are closed, it will be moved to June 2.

Jin-Hup Song jinhup@donga.com