Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok analyzes data submitted by National Tax Service
Staff looked up prospective father-in-law's corporate tax filings, shareholder records
Four cases involved unauthorized access to celebrities' personal information
Detection system developed but not yet deployed
Lawmaker calls for effective measures to prevent recurrence
A National Tax Service employee identified only as A, who was about to get married, secretly accessed tax records out of curiosity about the assets of a prospective father-in-law — including corporate tax filings and shareholder records for the company the father-in-law operated. The employee falsified the stated purpose of the inquiry in an attempt to conceal the unauthorized access.
National Tax Service employees have been disciplined 17 times over the past five years for privately accessing personal tax information — including that of prospective in-laws, real estate counterparties and celebrities. The agency developed a detection system to prevent such abuses but has yet to apply it to actual inspections.
According to data submitted to Reform Party lawmaker Lee Jun-seok, a member of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee, 17 disciplinary cases were recorded from 2022 through last September involving employees who accessed electronic tax records for personal purposes. Of those, 14 resulted in reprimands and three in pay cuts.
Breaking down the cases by reason, unauthorized lookups of real estate counterparties' information were the most common, accounting for seven cases. Four cases involved accessing information on celebrities and other public figures.
This year alone, six disciplinary actions were taken specifically for employees looking up information related to a prospective spouse before marriage. Of the six employees disciplined for marriage-related inquiries, four received reprimands and two received pay cuts.
The unauthorized access came to light during a Board of Audit and Inspection probe, which reviewed electronic access records from 2023 and 2024 for 843 National Tax Service employees from 2024 through March last year. The review found that 82 employees had accessed information on their own pre-marriage relatives, while 307 had accessed pre-marriage relatives of fellow employees.
Of those cases flagged as potentially lacking a legitimate work purpose, eight employees were referred for discipline after failing to justify their inquiries. Six received disciplinary action — four reprimands and two pay cuts — and these six are included in this year's disciplinary total. Proceedings against the remaining two are ongoing.
The deeper concern is that while unauthorized access to personal information continues to recur, the rollout of a preventive detection system has been delayed. Following a Board of Audit and Inspection recommendation, the National Tax Service developed a formula in May to detect improper pre-marriage inquiries. The agency has only said it "plans to conduct inspections before the end of the year" when asked whether the system is actually in use.
The National Tax Service holds sensitive personal information including taxpayers' income, assets and financial transaction records. When employees with work-related access use that information for personal purposes, it undermines not only taxpayer privacy but also public trust in the tax administration system as a whole.
"The significant lag between the development of the system and its actual deployment — even after the risk of unauthorized access has been confirmed — raises serious questions about the National Tax Service's commitment to protecting personal information," Lee said. "A clear explanation is needed regarding whether the system has actually been put into operation, what inspections have been conducted, and what follow-up measures have been taken."
Lee added that "information citizens provide in good faith when filing their taxes must not become a tool for satisfying the personal curiosity of civil servants," and called on the National Tax Service to immediately activate its unauthorized-access detection system and put in place effective preventive measures — including automatic alerts for inquiries lacking a work-related purpose and regular audits of access records.
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