Cases of Property Attachment Due to Tax Delinquency on the Rise

As the economic depression continues, instances of having one’s properties attached by the National Tax Service (NTS) due to delinquency in payment of taxes are increasing, and the figure has passed the total number of such instances last year.

According to a report submitted by the NTS to Congressman Choi Gyung-hwan of the Finance and Economy Committee, the number of instances in which the NTS seized the property of a defaulter in the first half of the year was 282,695, outnumbering the 277,517 cases last year.

Compared to the number of instances during the first half of last year (138,358 cases), the number has increased by two-fold.

The number of cases in which the NTS seized the properties of defaulters has been increasing ever since 2000: (The following are first half statistics only) 96,265 cases in 2000, 114,530 cases in 2001, 119,436 cases in 2002, and 138,358 cases in 2003. The NTS explained that the number has increased greatly because the law was revised so that general taxation data such as financial interests and dividends could be applied to the attachment of defaulters’ properties in the beginning of the year. Although the number of cases in which financial properties being attached were not even half of the total attachment cases until last year, the number makes up 80 percent of all cases this year.

Also, the amount of real estate being sold in public auctions has increased greatly. According to the Korea Asset Management Corporation, the number of public auctions held during the first half of the year was 3,154, which outnumbers the number of public auctions held during last year (3,297 cases).

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com