Samsung Electronics to Be Subject to Additional Tax More Than 500 Billion Won

Samsung Electronics is expected to pay more than 500 billion in tax after receiving a tax probe from the National Tax Service.

According to the Korean business world and Samsung Electronics, the 1st Investigation Division of the National Tax Service’s Seoul Metropolitan District launched a tax investigation into Samsung Electronics last October and completed it at the end of last month.

During the investigation, it was reported that it would additionally collect hundreds of billions of won in the corporate tax among others for tax accounting errors. The electronics industry expects the volume of the additional tax collection to exceed 500 billion won.

It is said that the additional collection was blamed not on large-scale sales and income falsification but on differences in the interpretation of tax law between Samsung Electronics and the National Tax Service. The National Tax Service claimed that some of the items recognized as expenses (losses) by Samsung Electronics during a corporate tax filing of the fiscal year targeted by the tax investigation were not expenses (losses) and imposed tax on them. However, it is said that Samsung Electronics is reviewing a plan to file a complaint with the National Tax Service or to make an appeal to the Tax Tribunal of Korea.

The National Tax Service conducted a tax investigation into Samsung Electronics’s headquarters in Suwon of Gyeonggi Province last October. In 2011, the Korean taxman also conducted a regular tax audit of Samsung Electronics and additionally collected 470 billion won.