Opening remarks at National Tax Service national audit

National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Gwang-hyeon takes an oath of witness at the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee national audit of the NTS, held Tuesday at Government Complex Sejong. [Yonhap]
National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Gwang-hyeon takes an oath of witness at the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee national audit of the NTS, held Tuesday at Government Complex Sejong. [Yonhap]

National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Gwang-hyeon said Tuesday the agency would operate "as a fair, rational and future-ready tax administration."

Lim made the remarks while delivering a status report at the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee national audit of the NTS, held at Government Complex Sejong.

"Cumulative tax revenue through August reached 323.8 trillion won ($242 billion), up 68.6 trillion won from the same period last year," he said, adding that the agency would ensure stable fiscal funding through expanded compliance support for major tax items in the second half of the year, tighter tax base management and a stronger crackdown on high-value delinquents.

Lim also said the NTS would consolidate the collection of non-tax national revenue — currently managed across multiple agencies — under a single NTS system to manage overall national fiscal income "efficiently and responsibly."

He said the agency would fully support the legislative process, including bill briefings, to enact a law governing the collection and management of non-tax national revenue arrears within the year.

He added that the NTS would deploy a total of 9,500 fixed-term workers as field verification officers across 133 tax offices nationwide and operate joint delinquency management teams covering both tax and non-tax national revenue at each office.

Lim warned that the agency would thoroughly investigate and strictly punish antisocial real estate tax evasion that provokes public outrage, irregular tax dodging that undermines capital market order, and the private use of corporate assets such as high-end homes and supercars.

"We will pursue and recover intelligent offshore tax evasion — including the acquisition of overseas assets through illegal corporate fund outflows — to the very end," he said, announcing plans to establish a dedicated special task force linking tax investigations with delinquency tracking.

He said the agency would also pursue a phased rollout of AI across all areas of tax administration, including taxpayer services, fair taxation and administrative efficiency.

To ensure fair personnel management and equitable rewards, Lim said the NTS would follow the ad hoc promotions carried out in August with a large-scale regular promotion round in November.

The agency also plans to handle abusive complaints involving verbal or physical aggression through a dedicated employee protection legal team and to expand the deployment of security personnel.

"I will humbly listen to the observations and recommendations offered by committee members today, so that this occasion can serve as a stepping stone for tax administration to advance further, and I will faithfully reflect them in our future work," Lim said.

Meanwhile, according to data on the performance of the non-tax national revenue delinquency management teams obtained by Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jeong Tae-ho of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee, the teams resolved 120.5 billion won in arrears between July and September. Of that amount, 82.7 billion won was actually collected into the national treasury, while 37.8 billion won was cleared on the books through expired statutes of limitations, deaths and write-offs. About 430,000 people made actual payments, and about 109,000 were subject to book clearance. An additional roughly 242,000 people pledged to the teams to pay a combined 40.6 billion won.

Actual collections over the three-month period were about 3.4 times the 24 billion won spent on the teams' personnel costs during the same period.

Notifying delinquents in advance that their arrears information would be transferred also boosted payments. After the NTS informed Korean National Police Agency traffic-fine delinquents that their records would be transferred to the NTS and that delinquency management teams would follow up, daily payments — which had averaged about 1.2 billion won — rose to 3.84 billion won on June 30, the day the notices were sent, and 2.09 billion won the following day, July 1.

The delinquency management teams also assess the living conditions of delinquents and connect those facing financial hardship with welfare programs. During the same period, 3,055 welfare referral applications were filed, but only 298 cases, or 9.8 percent, were actually connected to services. Some 1,853 cases, accounting for 60.7 percent of the total, were still listed as "under review" as of the end of September.


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com