The amount of overdue taxes in South Korea has exceeded 7 trillion won ($6.57 billion) despite the government’s stepped-up efforts to crack down on tax evasion, data showed Tuesday.
According to the data offered by the National Tax Service, a total of 732,903 people had failed to pay due national taxes as of end-June. Their combined overdue taxes stood at 7.26 trillion won.
The number of tax delinquents was down from the 805,249 tallied in end-2011, but the amount of unpaid taxes spiked 33 percent from the 5.46 trillion won back then, the data showed.
In particular, the number of people owing more than 100 million won worth of taxes to the government rose from 4,816 to 6,925, and their unpaid taxes totaled 3.2 trillion won, up from 2.37 trillion won.
Of the total tax delinquents owing more than 100 million won, 36 percent were living in Seoul with their combined overdue taxes reaching 1.89 trillion won, the data showed.
Unpaid value-added taxes came to 1.49 trillion won, accounting for the largest 20 percent, followed by income taxes with 7.2 percent and corporate taxes with 3.5 percent, respectively. (Yonhap)
