The Tax Service Has Become a Weapon of the Powerful Korea's Black Market Worth W250 Trillion, Report Says Can the Tax Office Shake Off Its Henchman Image? Proposed Tax on Art Sales Raises Hackles

Tax authorities have started investigating Koreans suspected of transferring assets to tax havens. The National Tax Service on Tuesday said it has started gathering information on numbered accounts in European tax havens like Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Wedged between Switzerland and Austria, Liechtenstein, with its population of 30,000, is popular among rich Europeans and Americans as a place to stash their assets in secret accounts to evade the tax authorities.

In February, German prosecutors launched an investigation of Klaus Zumwinkel, the CEO of Deutsche Post, Europe’s largest postal delivery service, on charges of evading around 1 million euros in taxes after hoarding some 10 million euros in a secret account in Liechtenstein. The U.S. Justice Department launched probes of Americans who had opened accounts in Switzerland’s UBS, pressuring Zurich to hand over information on those accounts. The probe was triggered by confessions from a former UBS employee who said he had helped wealthy Americans evade taxes.

The NTS said it intends to launch an investigation based on the information German tax officials have obtained. If Koreans are found to have evaded taxes by opening accounts in tax havens, this could lead to a wider probe of wealthy Koreans and large businesses.

(englishnews@chosun.com )