Im Gwang-hyeon vows to collect taxes 'at home and abroad' as NTS recovers W15tr in arrears

Im Gwang-hyeon, the first National Tax Service commissioner under the Lee Jae Myung administration, is estimated to have collected roughly 15 trillion won ($11.2 billion) in tax arrears over the approximately 15 months since taking office. Operating under the conviction that he will "collect without fail, whether at home or abroad," Im has been broadening cooperation with foreign tax authorities to more effectively track and recover assets that high-value delinquents have hidden overseas.

According to the NTS, cash collections from July last year through June this year — covering Im's first year in office — reached 12.01 trillion won.

Collections for July through October this year are still being tallied, but applying the roughly 12 trillion won pace recorded over the preceding year implies more than 1 trillion won recovered per month. That projection puts Im's total collections at around 15 trillion won over the 15 months from July last year through this month.

Adding to that figure, Kwon Hyeok, chairman of Sido Group and until recently the country's single largest individual tax delinquent, has agreed to pay off his entire personal arrears of nearly 400 billion won. He has already made an initial cash payment of 100 billion won.

Taken together, the figures suggest Im has collected more than 15 trillion won in arrears during his first 15 months in office.

To pressure other large-scale delinquents, Im has been strengthening enforcement cooperation with foreign tax authorities. This year he established a special task force on high-value tax delinquency and has intensified efforts to trace assets hidden abroad.

Since last year, the NTS has signed enforcement cooperation memoranda of understanding with Australia, Indonesia, Hungary, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Liberia, New Zealand and others, rapidly expanding its international network. The number of countries with which South Korea can now pursue joint collection efforts has grown to 77.

Im also took direct aim at the flag-of-convenience countries — nations that allow shipowners to register vessels under a different nationality — where Kwon holds ships. He sent personal letters to the tax chiefs of Liberia and Panama and invited them to South Korea. When he met the Liberian commissioner, Im drank alcohol despite not being a drinker in order to win the official over.

High-value delinquents frequently conceal assets across multiple countries. The list of major and habitual tax delinquents published by the NTS in December last year included a significant number of cases in which the delinquent, or the representative of a delinquent corporation, was a foreign national or conducted primary business activities in China, Hong Kong, Japan or other overseas markets.

Im also plans to strengthen collections by linking them to the NTS's unscheduled audit division — informally known in business circles as the "grim reaper of the corporate world." To institutionalize the gains, the NTS will for the first time establish dedicated special investigation teams linking tax audits and delinquency tracking within the unscheduled audit bureaus of regional tax offices nationwide, including the fourth bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Tax Office. The teams will conduct unscheduled special audits targeting delinquents suspected of tax evasion through capital flight and other means, in addition to investigating those who attempt to evade enforcement of delinquency dispositions.

To staff the teams with top talent, the NTS plans to recruit employees with expertise in unscheduled criminal tax investigations, examination of controlling shareholders' assets, legal review of seized property, and offshore intelligence gathering and analysis, with hiring set for November and December.

Im, who passed the state administrative examination in its 38th cohort, is from Hongseong in South Chungcheong Province. He graduated from Gangseo High School in Seoul and the economics department of Yonsei University before beginning his public-service career as head of the general affairs division at the Daejeon Tax Office, eventually rising through key posts including commissioner of the Seoul Regional Tax Office and deputy commissioner of the NTS. He is widely regarded as the most accomplished investigation specialist in the agency's 60-year history. President Lee's decision to appoint Im to lead the NTS is seen as a signal that, amid a prolonged shortfall in tax revenues, the agency should redouble its efforts to secure revenue through more rigorous tax administration.