The National Tax Service (NTS) of South Korea intends to strictly monitor and punish citizens for tax evasion using cryptocurrencies. This was reported by the Korea Herald with reference to a representative of the department.
Although the country has not yet introduced taxation of profits from trading cryptocurrencies, these assets are actively used for money laundering, the official said.
More and more Koreans are investing in crypto assets, and then withdraw these funds back to fiat in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia to hide their presence from the Korean authorities.
A representative of the NTS said that it was recently discovered that the owner of a hospital in Seoul owed 2.7 billion won ($ 2 million) in income tax.
The man noted in his tax returns that he had no income. However, the tax service was able to establish that he invested 3.9 billion won (almost $ 3 million) in cryptocurrency. He was forced to fulfill his obligations to the state after the NTS arrested his cryptocurrency account.
The department is also aware that the cryptocurrency is actively used to evade taxes on inheritance and donation.
Much attention will be paid to operators of online platforms who seek to move their e-commerce servers abroad to avoid taxation, the official underlined.
