Gyeonggi Province Conducts First Nationwide Full-Scale Investigation of Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation Investment Securities from Tax Delinquents

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province conducted a full-scale investigation of local tax delinquents' investment securities in the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation and detected and seized 740 million won in investment funds held by 44 delinquent taxpayers.

Fire-related business operators pay investment funds to the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation and receive certificates to prove their rights regarding bid guarantees, contract guarantees, and project performance guarantees.

Investment securities from construction mutual aid cooperatives and others can be managed through the existing local tax information system, but investment securities from the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation, which became active from 2010, had been excluded from management targets.

The full-scale investigation of Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation investment securities is the first of its kind domestically. The province explained that it pursued the investigation to address blind spots in uncovering hidden assets of delinquent taxpayers.

From mid-August to mid-September, the province conducted a full-scale investigation of whether approximately 158,000 delinquent taxpayers with local taxes of 1 million won or more owned investment securities in the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation.

The investigation was conducted through all four branches of the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation (Seoul, Daejeon, Gwangju, and Busan).

Among the 44 detected delinquent taxpayers, key cases show that Corporation A, a non-asset write-off delinquent company that had been conducting fire safety construction in the Gyeonggi Province area, was delinquent on 11 million won in local income tax and other taxes assessed in 2019. The province confirmed that Corporation A had invested 52 million won in the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation and took seizure measures.

Delinquent Corporation B had failed to pay 23 million won from nine cases of local income tax assessed in 2017. Through this investigation, 20 million won in investment funds in the Fire Industry Mutual Aid Cooperation was revealed and immediately seized in full.

Corporation C, which operates electrical and fire safety construction, was also delinquent on 41 cases (8 million won) of local income taxes, and investment funds of 20 million won were detected.

The province and city and county offices plan to request the Korea Asset Management Corporation to hold public auctions for the seized investment securities to proceed with collection procedures.

Kim Min-kyung, head of the Tax Justice Division of Gyeonggi Province, said, "Tax resistance to collection of delinquent taxes is increasing, and delinquent taxpayers' methods of avoiding payment are becoming more diverse. We will do our best to realize tax justice by deploying all possible means to uncover hidden assets and ensuring collection of all amounts owed."