The National Tax Service (NTS) has launched a comprehensive investigation into high-value residential properties worth over 900 million won in officially assessed value that are owned by corporations. Controlling shareholders and their families who live in corporate-owned luxury homes while evading taxes are expected to face intensive scrutiny. Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung said at the National Economic Advisory Council meeting on January 9 that he would "consider imposing substantial holding burdens" on corporations holding large amounts of real estate unnecessarily.
NTS Commissioner Im Gwang-hyun announced through Facebook on January 12, "We will verify corporate-owned residential properties that are non-business assets." He added, "There is no problem when corporations use properties as employee housing or when rental business corporations lease them out, but if controlling shareholders and their families reside in these properties without paying taxes, this constitutes tax evasion using non-business real estate."
The investigation targets 2,630 high-value homes with officially assessed values exceeding 900 million won owned by corporations. According to the NTS, approximately 1,600 corporations owned high-value homes exceeding 900 million won in assessed value as of last year. The combined assessed value of these properties totals approximately 5.4 trillion won ($4 billion), with an average price of about 2 billion won per property. Among these, approximately 100 ultra-luxury homes are valued at over 5 billion won.
"Beyond tax evasion, this is a serious issue as corporate funds are being used for controlling shareholders' luxurious lifestyles and real estate speculation instead of productive investment," Commissioner Im said. "We will first inspect all 2,630 high-value homes owned by corporations and expand to lower-value properties if necessary."
The NTS plans to convert cases with confirmed tax evasion into formal tax investigations and collect unpaid taxes. The agency also intends to expand the scope of verification to other non-business real estate, including corporate-owned land.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance also plans to begin assessing corporations' non-business land holdings soon. Currently, the scale of non-business land held by corporations is only indirectly estimated through property tax records. The comprehensive real estate tax on corporate non-business land, which reflects the holding burden, has been increasing.
According to the NTS, the comprehensive real estate tax on comprehensively aggregated land, which includes corporate non-business land, increased approximately 33% from 1.166 trillion won in 2020 to 1.556 trillion won in 2024. The number of corporate taxpayers also grew by approximately 30% to 21,859 during the same period.
This measure comes just three days after President Lee ordered strengthened regulations on corporate non-business real estate. At the National Economic Advisory Council meeting on January 9, President Lee noted that "there were extensive regulations on corporate non-business real estate in the past, but they seem to have disappeared now," and directed officials to develop regulatory measures.
