Convicted tax dodgers to be made public

The National Tax Service (NTS) will reveal to the public the names and personal information of those who have been convicted of tax evasion, officials said Sunday.

The NTS attempted to implement the “name and shame” system to reveal the information of tax dodgers in July, 2012 but failed due to tight security and difficult access to such private records.

However, lawmakers strongly urged new NTS Commissioner Lim Hwan-soo to make the list filled with convicted tax evaders public at a recent hearing at the National Assembly.
In response, Lim pledged to release the list by the end of this year.

The NTS has been working on selecting tax dodgers whose information will be made public after obtaining the court’s rulings of tax evaders.

The list will include names, company names, age, professions, addresses and the amount of taxes evaded by people found guilty since July 2012.

So far the NTS has gained access to the court’s rulings only when it reported tax evasion to the prosecution. However, it has been difficult to obtain the court’s rulings for tax evaders indicted by the prosecutors without their consent due to the protection of privacy.

The tax authority will also expose any charity organizations which issued fake receipts.

The NTS originally planned to reveal the list of delinquent charity institutions from 2008 but has postponed it due to some controversial standards of selecting which organizations should be on the list.

In 2012, revised rulings from the court now allow the NTS the option to fully disclose any organizations issuing false donation receipts to companies and individuals.

According to data submitted to Park Won-suk of the Justice Parity, 363 institutions have issued fake donation receipts worth 351 billion won from 2009 to 2012.

Also, tax violators who underreported or fail to report overseas financial transactions worth 5 billion won or more will be made public.

The name and shame system is expected to prevent tax evasion and encourage taxpayers to report any people or organizations attempting to evade taxes, NTS officials said.