<Anchor> The
city of Seoul has seized tens of billions of won worth of cryptocurrencies by discovering the cryptocurrencies of people who have not paid taxes. Then, the people who had endured because they didn't have the money to pay taxes until now would pay all the backlogs, so they are telling me to return only the cryptocurrency. It's better to pay taxes because cryptocurrency is likely to rise more.
This is Jung Joon-ho.
<Reporter>
Mr. A, the head of a hospital in Gangnam, Seoul, has not paid a local tax amounting to 1 billion won for four years.
The city of Seoul searched the cryptocurrency exchange and seized 12.5 billion won worth of cryptocurrency owned by Mr. A.
Then, Mr. A immediately paid 580 million won in tax and requested that the sale of virtual currency be withheld while depositing the hospital deposit account as collateral.
The city of Seoul seized 25.1 billion won worth of virtual currency held by 676 local tax arrears.
It is about 90% of these arrears.
The seizure of cryptocurrency brought in a line of taxes that had not been received for years.
The academy instructor who said "there wasn't the ability to pay" immediately paid all 56 million won after being seized with 3.1 billion won in virtual currency.
Some towns and small delinquents said, "I'll pay interest in the tax that has been pushed back in two years, so please return only the virtual currency."
He thought it would be better to pay taxes, as the cryptocurrency that had skyrocketed over the past few months would rise further.
In this way, 118 people paid 1.26 billion won in tax back.
In May 2018, the Supreme Court ordered a pornographic site operator to confiscate cryptocurrencies obtained from criminal proceeds.
This ruling recognized the asset value of cryptocurrency and included it for confiscation.
[Lee Byung-wook/Seoul City 38 Tax Collection Manager: I will encourage payment as much as possible, and if there is no willingness to pay, then I will sell it.] The
city of Seoul has announced that it will look into more cryptocurrency exchanges as it has benefited from the collection of arrears tax.
(Video coverage: Jongsoo Hong, Video editing: Seunghee Lee)