Reports of overseas financial accounts rise in 2015
SEJONG, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) — More South Koreans reported their overseas financial accounts to authorities in 2015 than a year earlier as the government turns up the heat on individuals and companies to disclose hidden assets, the tax office said Thursday.
The government has taken a firmer stance toward people and companies that try to hide their wealth in foreign countries. Seoul has signed various tax information exchange agreements with countries like the United States and many other major economies to ferret out tax delinquents.
The National Tax Service said a total of 826 people reported overseas accounts as of June, up 6.7 percent from a year earlier, with the amount in the accounts surging 52.1 percent on-year to 36.9 trillion won (US$31.1 billion).
“As of this year, the government made clear it will slap an extra 10 percent penalty tax on people who fail to provide a satisfactory explanation for how they acquired money held in overseas accounts, in addition to the punitive tax for those that are caught withholding accounts from authorities,” a tax official said.
Since 2011, when the government started earnestly clamping down on overseas accounts, the NTS has discovered 155 people who tried to conceal overseas accounts and ordered them to pay 50.8 billion won in fines.
The United States was the No. 1 location for overseas accounts, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore, the tax office said. It added that people reported accounts in 134 countries this year, up from 131 in 2014.
The NTS said because it plans to take tougher actions starting in 2016, it is best if people and companies take advantage of the immunity window announced by Seoul this week.
The window for disclosing unreported funds and assets will run from Oct. 1 through March 31, with those that come clean to be exempt from criminal investigations. The move is aimed at expanding South Korea’s tax base and enhancing its taxation transparency.
