South Korea Sees Surge In Offshore Disclosures

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

15 September 2016

There was a substantial increase in disclosures by South Korean taxpayers about their overseas financial assets during the first six months of the year, South Korea's tax agency has said.

Under the voluntary disclosure program, individuals and companies reporting undeclared overseas income and assets may be entitled to reduced penalties and are absolved from criminal law penalties.

According to NTS data, the number of taxpayers reporting undeclared offshore assets totaled 1,053 during the first six months of the year, a 27.5 percent rise over the 826 that reported holdings in the first half of 2015.

Assets disclosed reached KRW56.1 trillion (USD50.4bn), a year-on-year increase of KRW19.2 trillion. Most disclosures (KRW51.3 trillion) were from Korean companies.

Assets declared by individuals were predominantly situated in Singapore (KRW1.32 trillion), the United States (KRW1.29 trillion), and Hong Kong (KRW926bn).

Companies had undeclared accounts mainly in Hong Kong (KRW16.5 trillion) and China (KRW6.2 trillion).

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