Tax Agency Vows to Go Hard After Koreans Using Crypto to Evade Levies – Taxes Bitcoin News

South Korea’s tax administration has pledged to take strict measures against tax evasion through virtual assets and platforms. Although South Korean authorities have not yet begun taxing crypto-related capital gains, Seoul officials claim that cryptocurrency has been used to launder money.

Koreans Accused Of Investing In Crypto Assets To Avoid Taxes

According to the Korea Herald, which quoted a representative of South Korea’s National Tax Service, “The National Tax Service” of South Korea will take serious actions against tax evasion techniques that rely on virtual assets such as cryptocurrency and platforms operating with them.

The official stated Monday that a rising number of Korean citizens are seeking to evade tax by investing in crypto-assets after shifting their wealth to tax hasns like the Caribbean Basin and Southeast Asia.

During the authority’s policy briefing before the strategy and finance committee at the National Assembly, the Korean parliament, the official elaborated that this kind of new tax evasion is hampering justice in the market as well as fairness in taxation.

The official stressed that while the NTS still has not implemented taxation on gains from cryptocurrency trading, such assets had been used to launder money. There have been several cases in which tax payers engaged in such behaviour, according to the official. The Seoul-based hospital’s owner owes 2.7 billion won (about $2 million) in income tax.

The man, who was residing in the Korean capital’s Gangnam district, insisted he was not earning anything. The tax department was able, however to prove that the man had invested 3.9 billion won (almost 3 million dollars) in cryptocurrency. After the NTS took his crypto account, he was required to comply with his state obligations. The NTS also claimed that Crypto was being used for gift tax and inheritance evasion.

NTS officials admitted, too that they are targeting online platform owners. They claim that a growing number of these individuals are looking to transfer their online commerce platforms abroad in order to reduce taxation and avoid paying tax havens.

South Korean authorities have delayed the implementation of a 20% tax on crypto related gains to 2025. For capital gains above 2.5 million won, the levy would have been in force January next year ($1,900). As the initial plan was to implement it in January 2022, the government delayed imposing the tax a second year.

How do you feel about South Korea’s intentions regarding crypto investment? Leave a comment below.

Lubomir Tassav

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.