South Korea Strengthens Taxpayer Rights

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

28 March 2007

The National Tax Service of Korea has officially announced a revised Taxpayer Rights Charter, and has organised a meeting to demonstrate the "strong resolve" of its tax officers to comply with the new rights.

One provision was revised to further enhance taxpayer rights, and two new rights were added.

Under the first revision, taxpayers may request a scheduled tax audit to be pushed back in date due to uncontrollable circumstances, such as a natural disaster. When such a request is made, the taxpayer has the right to be notified whether his or her request for delay has been accepted or rejected.

The second revision allows tax audits to be extended in duration when a taxpayer undergoing an audit is found to have been concealing or discarding information, or delaying or refusing altogether an audit. When this happens, a taxpayer now has the right to be notified in writing of such an extension, as well as of the reason for the extension and the number of days for which the audit has been extended.

Under the third change, during the period when a taxpayer has received a written notification of an audit result but hasn’t yet been assessed regarding the taxes due, he or she has the right to request a review of the audit result (called the “Pre-Assessment Review”) for its legitimacy, and to be notified of the outcome of the Pre-Assessment Review.

Recommended