Suwon City Conducts Fair and Transparent Regular Tax Audits on Corporations

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City held the "First Local Tax Deliberation Committee Meeting of 2020" on the 5th and selected 150 corporations as targets for regular tax audits this year through written deliberation.

Existing regular tax audit targets were previously selected arbitrarily by relevant civil servants who reviewed acquisition report documents and external audit materials, identifying corporations with suspected tax evasion.

Starting this year, the city has changed this selection method, with the Local Tax Deliberation Committee fairly selecting targets based on objective criteria, thereby enhancing transparency and efficiency.

The committee evaluated ▲faithfulness analysis (corporations suspected of unfaithful reporting) ▲non-audited cases within four years ▲sample audits (corporations in the top 50% of acquisition valuation by major industries, acquisition property use, and acquisition type) ▲carry-over corporations (non-audited corporations among 2019 audit targets) in selecting this year's audit target corporations.

In particular, the committee enhanced fairness by conducting deliberations in a blind state, where corporate names, representative names, and business locations were not marked, so that deliberation members could not identify tax audit targets during the deliberation process.

To this end, the city amended the "Suwon City Local Tax Tax Audit Operating Rules," which has as its core "Selection of Tax Audit Target Corporations Through Local Tax Deliberation Committee Deliberation," in November last year.

The city plans to establish audit schedules for confirmed tax audit targets and annual operational plans, and will implement regular tax audits starting in March.

A city official stated, "By selecting target corporations through deliberation of the Local Tax Deliberation Committee and objectifying selection criteria such as sample audits, we have enhanced both fairness and transparency," and added, "We will conduct tax audits in a manner that does not interfere with corporate operations and will do our best to protect the rights and interests of corporate taxpayers."

Meanwhile, the Suwon City Local Tax Deliberation Committee, composed of 19 members including city civil servants and external members (attorneys, tax accountants, certified public accountants, appraisers, and university professors), has conducted matters related to appeals and review requests, and deliberation on municipal tax-related ordinances and selection of faithful taxpayers.