Chun makes list of tax deadbeats

The government yesterday released the names of the biggest tax delinquents, which included former President Chun Doo Hwan.

The Ministry of Security and Public Administration unveiled a list of names of the individuals and companies that have owed more than 30 million won ($28,500) in taxes for more than two years.

This year, 9,949 individuals and 4,551 companies made the list, up by 25.7 percent from last year.

The names, occupations, addresses and ages of the delinquents were made public through local governments, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

According to the ministry, the total amount of overdue taxes grew to 2.14 trillion won, up by 26.6 percent from last year.

The number of people and companies that failed to pay more than 100 million won also went up to 4,746, an increase of 821 from last year.

Sixty-two individuals and 146 companies owed more than 1 billion won in taxes.

While most of the people who made last year’s roster remained on this year’s, former President Chun was a new addition. He owes 46 million won in taxes.

The Park Geun-hye administration has made clear that it will not cut the former president any slack.

After she vowed to go after the ex-military strongman to pay for massive fines for crimes committed during his presidency, the prosecution investigated Chun and his family to confiscate his hidden assets.

After weeks of raids, the Chun family surrendered and promised to pay the outstanding fine of 167.2 billion won by selling assets that include real estate and art.

The 46 million won of taxes that Chun owed to the Seoul Metropolitan Government came from a capital gains tax from 2010 when he auctioned off a building used by his bodyguards.

When paying the capital gains tax, he was supposed to pay 10 percent of the amount in local income tax. In 2010, he was supposed to pay 30.17 million won, but the amount grew with punitive fines.

“When the art collections confiscated by the prosecution are auctioned off, we can collect the back tax,” a Seoul government official said.

Cho Dong-man, the former Hansol Group vice chairman, took top place on the list. He owes 8.43 billion won to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

GS Engineering and Construction in Gyeonggi Province topped the corporate list by failing to pay 16.7 billion won. The company is not an affiliate of the GS Group.

The ministry said it will bar tax delinquents from leaving the country. It will also reinforce efforts to collect back taxes by investigating people’s assets and attaching their properties. Their automobile’s license plates will be taken away, and they will be barred from participating in government-run businesses.

The ministry and 244 local governments signed an agreement yesterday to create an electronic system to obtain financial transaction data from the Financial Supervisory Service and 17 banks. The system will be available for use starting April 2015.

As of now, local governments are required to ask banks via mail or fax to obtain information.

BY SER MYO-JA [myoja@joongang.co.kr]