South Korea Tax Authority Begins Confiscation of Crypto Asset Owned by Tax Defaulters

According to a report by Yonhap last week, the Seoul metropolitan government has confiscated crypto assets from hundreds of tax-defaulting cryptocurrency investors in South Korea.

Based on the report, the government’s tax collection department has identified cryptocurrencies on three cryptocurrency exchanges belonging to 1,566 individuals, including company heads. So far, coins belonging to about 676 investors have gotten confiscated, with the government claiming that these people owe 28.4 billion won ($25.4 million) in overdue taxes. The authority added that it would go after the assets of the 890 investors next.

Several of the affected investors have scrambled to pay back 1.2 billion won since the seizure, with the city government confirming that:

“We are continually being asked by delinquent taxpayers to refrain from selling their cryptocurrencies as they will pay their taxes.”

The authority added that:

“We believe the taxpayers expect the value of their cryptocurrencies to increase further due to the recent spike in the price of cryptocurrencies and have determined they will gain more from paying their delinquent taxes and having the seizure released.”

The government provided a repayment example, citing a hospital head who pleaded with the authorities not to sell his crypto assets and immediately paid 580 million won out of the 1 billion won he owed in unpaid taxes and provided collateral for the rest.

Another defaulting taxpayer asked the government not to sell his confiscated crypto assets worth 3 million won, noting that the value of his holding could grow significantly in the next two years and would be more than enough to cover his tax debt.

19% of Seized Crypto Assets Is Bitcoin
Meanwhile, the tax authority noted that the most popular cryptocurrency held by defaulters was Bitcoin, which accounted for 19% of all seized assets. Dragonvein and XRP came second with 16% each, while Ethereum and Stellar accounted for 10% and 9%, respectively.

 

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