American A in his 40s bought 42 small apartments in the metropolitan area and Chungcheong Province as a'gap investment' since 2018.

The total price of the purchased property is 6.7 billion won.

However, A did not have enough income in Korea to buy dozens of apartments, and his wealth did not meet that.

There was no amount received by foreign exchange international remittances, so even with a gap investment, the source of significant funds was unclear.

A rented the apartments it owned and earned income.

The National Tax Service said today (3rd) that it has launched a tax investigation on 42 foreign multi-homeowners (multi-homeowners) who are alleged to escape from home rental income.

According to the National Tax Service, 1,36 foreigners acquired more than two apartments from 2017 to May this year.

From 2017 to May of this year, 32.7% of the apartments were never occupied by 7,695 out of 2,167 apartments acquired by foreigners.

The IRS suspected that "having multiple domestic apartments where foreigners do not actually live is generally a speculative demand."

During this period, among so-called'black-headed foreigners' who received a Korean resident registration number among foreign real estate buyers, 985, 4.2%.

When a foreigner acquires, owns, or transfers a domestic apartment, the tax obligation must be fulfilled in the same way as a domestic person.


Chinese B, who entered Korea as an international student, showed a similar gap investment behavior as A.

In his 30s, B entered for study abroad and completed a Korean language course.

After working, she lived in the metropolitan area and acquired eight apartments nationwide, including Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Busan, in addition to expensive apartments in Seoul.

B did not report the rental income even if they rented 7 of them on a monthly or monthly rent, and they withdrew from the income tax.

There was no income or wealth in Korea to buy several apartments in a short period of time, and hundreds of millions of won were sent from China, but it was not enough to buy eight.

Foreign high-income earners who took advantage of what foreigners did not qualify for monthly tax credits were caught.

Foreigner C in his 50s, working as an executive of a Korean office of a foreign company, acquired 4 apartments, including a Han Riverside apartment with a market value of 4.5 billion won and an apartment with a market price of 3 billion won in Gangnam.

The market price of 4 apartments bought by C amounts to 12 billion won.

C gave the remaining 3 houses to foreigners as a large amount of rent exceeding 10 million won per month and omitted the lease income report.

The Internal Revenue Service will investigate the alleged omission of rental income and the source of the acquired funds, collect tax evasion taxes, and notify the tax authorities of the country of origin.

The National Tax Service said, “The acquisition of real estate by foreigners who are not for the purpose of real residence is often not caught by the management of the tax authorities of the country of origin. I look forward to it."

Last year, the foreign tax authorities, which discovered the fact that Koreans were secretly transferring homes abroad, notified the Korean government of the relevant information.

(Photo = National Tax Service, Yonhap News)