Wedding invitations and funeral notices are being openly traded in KakaoTalk open chat rooms ahead of Korea's comprehensive income tax filing season. Business operators seeking to reduce taxes by processing fake congratulatory and condolence expenses are buying and selling materials containing others' personal information, raising concerns over both tax evasion and violations of the Personal Information Protection Act.
According to Yonhap News on Tuesday, a search for "sharing family events" on KakaoTalk open chat returns 18 related chat rooms. Each room has anywhere from several hundred to 1,400 participants, with users uploading screenshots of mobile wedding invitations and funeral notices to exchange them, or selling them for 500 to 1,000 won apiece.
One operator said, "Depending on the quantity, prices can go as low as 600 won," adding that "there are many cases of buyers purchasing up to 400 copies." Some chat rooms have even posted notices warning that members who fail to share any material for a month will be forcibly removed.
The surge in demand stems from a loophole in tax law. Congratulatory and condolence money given to business-related parties such as clients and customers is classified as business entertainment expenses, and can be processed as a cost with only a wedding invitation or funeral notice if the amount is 200,000 won or less per occasion. The fact that no formal documentation such as credit card receipts or tax invoices is required is being exploited.
The problem is that processing family-event expenses unrelated to business as costs constitutes clear tax evasion. A National Tax Service official said the agency does not recognize such expense processing unless actual business relevance is confirmed. However, the official added that it is practically difficult to identify individuals because open chat room users do not use their real names.
Privacy violations are also serious. Wedding invitations contain photos of the bride and groom along with the venue's location and time, while funeral notices include contact information for the chief mourner, family relationships, and bank account numbers.
Kim, a 31-year-old office worker who sent mobile wedding invitations to acquaintances ahead of his wedding, said, "I sent them to receive congratulations, but it's unsettling that they could be used as material among strangers." Distributing or selling such information without the consent of the parties involved may constitute a violation of the Personal Information Protection Act, and if photos are included, it could become grounds for civil damages due to infringement of portrait rights and personality rights.
