First Time to Punish Tax-evading YouTubers
The National Tax Service (NTS) has found out that seven high-income YouTubers have failed to report 4.50 billion won (US$3.78 million) of their income to the tax office.
The NTS recently conducted a tax audit on YouTubers who were suspected of tax dodging. It submitted the results of its audit to Rep. Kim Chung-woo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who in turn disclosed them on Oct. 10.
The NTS report showed that the even YouTubers underreported their income from advertising endorsements and sponsors. This marks the first time the government has disclosed popular YouTubers' incomes and the amounts of tax evasion.
Out of the seven punished YouTubers, one was discovered last year and six this year, according to the NTS. They were fined a total of 1 billion won (US$838,926).
The number of Korean YouTube channels with over 100,000 subscribers increased from 367 in 2015 to 674 in 2016 and 1,275 in 2017, according to Google Korea.