[2021-06-23] South Korea seizes crypto assets from wealthy tax dodgers

[Woodie]

South Korea authorities have seized over $47 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as other cryptocurrencies, the Financial Times has reported, citing government officials from Gyeonggi province.

The crackdown targeted wealthy individuals in the greater Seoul area, the report added, with over 12,000 people investigated amid a battle against tax evasion.

Among the prominent individuals to surrender their crypto to authorities are a TV host, a real estate mogul, and a doctor.

The popular TV host reportedly owed 20 million Won ($17,599) in taxes but held 500 million Won ($439,991) worth of Ethereum and other crypto assets. The doctor had allegedly not paid tax of up to 17 million Won (about $14,962), even though he held over 2.8 billion Won ($2,464,465) worth of Bitcoin.

In total, investigators seized over 53 billion Won ($47 million) from individuals said to have used it to hide assets for tax evasion. It is the largest confiscation from tax evaders in the country’s history.


read more https://coinjournal.net/news/south-korea-seizes-over-47m-in-crypto-from-wealthy-tax-evaders/

Lets talk about the tax evasion later, how do people get busted for holding this amount of bitcoins...this can only be the work of a whistleblower! How on earth can someone know you have a stash of crypto in the first place, do these guys get tortured, do they have spy cameras planted in their homes, do the owners themselves get this out of the closet...like how really !

[NeuroticFish]

How on earth can someone know you have a stash of crypto in the first place

If you buy from centralized exchange, the agencies that have jurisdiction there can ask the exchange for documents related to the money flow (the money you have deposited) and can easily lead to the address(es) you withdrawn to (of course, it's a different story whether you give them your private keys or not).
And if you didn't withdraw, they may seize your funds directly at the exchange.

[bbc.reporter]

I am shaking my head. The regulators are taxing cryptoholders but they are removing taxes from banking and financial institutions? These people are sticking it in the backside of the poor and they are laughing while they are doing this.



Financial Services Set to Be Excluded in Global Tax Rules: FT

Source https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report-international/financial-services-set-to-be-excluded-in-global-tax-rules-ft

[NeuroticFish]

I am shaking my head. The regulators are taxing cryptoholders but they are removing taxes from banking and financial institutions? These people are sticking it in the backside of the poor and they are laughing while they are doing this.

Banksters were always working together with the governments. They always afforded to pay for lobby or directly the politicians, they were lately considered crucial for the economies (remember how much of tax payers' money these private companies received in order to not fall when their gamble didn't pay off)...

One year they receive money from governments, another year they don't pay taxes... caviar and luxury cars/boats have to be paid from somewhere and they don't intend to work for that money. Wouldn't you do the same if you could? Of course, they can declare another financial crash and receive even more money: your call.

Sadly, as long as politicians rule the world, this kind of things do happen.

[Kakmakr]

Well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with tax authorities confiscating people's Crypto currencies, if they tried to evade taxes. It is actually a positive thing, because most people seem to spread misinformation that Crypto currencies are mostly used for tax evasion and incidents like this can be used as examples that tax evasion might happen.. but authorities can still seize people's coins.. if they did that.

There is not a lot you can do, if you are found guilty of tax evasion and the government gives you the option to go to jail or to give over your Crypto stash.    (They can do the math and compare your income from centralized services to that what you reported)

[Lucius]

Lets talk about the tax evasion later, how do people get busted for holding this amount of bitcoins...

In addition to what @NeuroticFish has already written, I would add that people still think that Bitcoin can give them absolute anonymity, which is why they behave so naively in an effort to avoid paying taxes. What catches my eye is the fact that some TV stars and doctors are mentioned in this story, and it would be reasonable to assume that they are somewhat intelligent and can afford legal assistance - and any lawyer would certainly give them the right advice to avoid such actions.

I don’t know what the SK property monitoring system is like, but it’s easiest to determine that someone is hiding something if their assets don’t match their income - so it’s possible that some have drawn attention to themselves that way.

[batang_bitcoin]

There's a massive cracking and tracking down in South Korea and they're very strict so the exchanges have to work with the government and for sure what Neurotic has said, it's all what happened why they were tracked. If you also remember that many of these exchanges have followed quickly what have been imposed that they have to remove Monero on their listing and some exchanges have also stopped their operation on their South Korean market because of some government commands.

[joniboini]

Considering a lot of dodgy projects are based in South Korea, I'm not surprised this is happening. South Korea is definitely trying to reap as many benefits as it can from crypto. Not surprised if they use stricter ways to make sure nobody start some dodgy projects and makes a lot of money without any contribution to the country at all.

[Vishnu.Reang]

If they have evaded the taxes, they will face the music. Nothing can be done about it. But the numbers sound a little bit odd for me. How can the authorities seize ₩500 million from the TV host, when the due amount is just ₩20 million? Even after penalty, I really doubt whether the updated tax bill will come up to more than 10% of the amount that is seized. Same with the doctor as well. ₩2,800 million worth of assets were seized, although the pending amount was just ₩17 million. One thing is sure. The tax authority is going to face some tough lawsuits, at least from some of the individuals mentioned here.

[stompix]

If they have evaded the taxes, they will face the music. Nothing can be done about it. But the numbers sound a little bit odd for me. How can the authorities seize ₩500 million from the TV host, when the due amount is just ₩20 million?

Didn't happen like that.

The popular TV host reportedly owed 20 million Won ($17,599) in taxes but held 500 million Won ($439,991) worth of Ethereum and other crypto assets. The doctor had allegedly not paid tax of up to 17 million Won (about $14,962), even though he held over 2.8 billion Won ($2,464,465) worth of Bitcoin.

That doctor owned 20m in taxes, has avoided paying another 17m in taxes but at the same time he had 500m in assets.
There is no mention of the authorities confiscating everything and even if they do, it's like that any other action like tihis, once the assets are liquidated if anything is left after the sale of those and paying your debts that amount is returned. I don't know how they are acting with cryptocurrency and if they treat it like a bank account where just the demanded sum is seized but I doubt any judge will order that only 56.78776521 ETH out of 67.72313131 would be seized, especially with this volatility.

Considering a lot of dodgy projects are based in South Korea, I'm not surprised this is happening. South Korea is definitely trying to reap as many benefits as it can from crypto.

Nothing do with ICOs, the guy owned money in taxes and lied by saying he doesn't own a penny, it's something that happens all over the world, judging by the fact that he was holding most in BTC he probably was just doing the usual tax evasion not raining money through those schemes.