Former Hanbo Chairman Jeong Tae-soo, Unpaid Taxes Amount to 150.7 Billion Won

Jeong Tae-soo, former Chairman of the Hanbo Group, was found to be a tax delinquent with the highest amount of unpaid taxes, 150.7 billion won.

Also, Hanbo Corporation, the construction company unit of the Hanbo Group, which is currently undergoing a clearance procedure, was found to be a dishonorable company, with the highest amount of unpaid taxes at 82.5 billion won.

On October 22, for the first time, the Nation Tax Service (NTS) publicized the names of 1,101 tax delinquents who have not paid their taxes of over one billion won for over two years (through January of this year), on its homepage (www.nts.go.kr).

This list will be published on the official gazette and the taxation office bulletin board through the end of this month.

The publication of the names of tax delinquents with a considerable amount of unpaid taxes is an action taken under the newly established tax law, to spread recognition that evasion and default of taxes is an immoral action.

The NTS is taking this opportunity to establish and operate a center to receive reports on habitual delinquents’ concealed properties, and is planning to publicize an annual list of the names of tax delinquents with high tax debts.

According to the NTS, the sum of unpaid taxes of the tax delinquents with over one billion won totals 4.668 trillion won, an average of 4.258 billion won per person.

The person with the highest amount of unpaid taxes is former Chairman Jeong, who was found to have deferred 30 payments of taxes, such as donation taxes from 1997 to 1999.

Choi Soon-young, former Shindonga Group chairman, was in second place for failing to meet 13 payments, including the consolidated income tax of 1999 to 2001, summing up to 106.7 billion won.

Following Chairman Choi, Jeong Bo-geun, a representative of Hanbo brick factory (64.2 billion won), Yim Chae-hwan, a representative of Samdong Industry (29.16 billion won), and Jeong Han-geun, a former representative of Hanbo Steel Sales (29.16 billion won), were among the top five in tax default.

In terms of corporations, with Hanbo Corporation in the lead, Hanbo Steel (71.172 billion won), Sejin Gold Casting (41.111 billion won), Woosung Industry and Development (39.458 billion won), and Dongyang Geumeun (29.32 billion won) ranked in the top five.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com