Suwon Achieves Seven Consecutive Years of Over 4 Billion Won in Local Tax and Non-Tax Revenue Collection

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon City has achieved seven consecutive years of collecting over 4 billion won in local tax and non-tax revenue delinquency amounts since 2016 through last year.

The city announced on the 18th that it has collected a total of 30.26 billion won over the past seven years, starting with 4.72 billion won collected in 2016, followed by 4.30 billion won in 2017, 4.01 billion won in 2018, 4.33 billion won in 2019, 4.57 billion won in 2020, 4.27 billion won in 2021, and 4.06 billion won last year.

This achievement is attributed to the city's Collection Division consistently developing new collection techniques with the motto of "All-out effort in chronic delinquency collection! Realizing tax justice!" and operating high-amount delinquency tracking mobile units, channeling all efforts into collecting delinquent amounts.

In fact, last year the high-amount delinquency tracking mobile unit collected 1.27 billion won, and 390 million won was collected through deposit garnishment, while delinquent amounts were also recovered through public auction of seized assets.

Investigators from the delinquency management division visited the homes of delinquent taxpayers to inform them of delinquency amounts and understand their living situations. For delinquent taxpayers with subsistence concerns, the city coordinated with welfare departments to ensure they received appropriate welfare services.

The city conducted residential searches to seize personal property such as cash and precious metals, and tracked chronic delinquent vehicles (ghost cars) where the registered owner differs from the actual owner, pursuing field-oriented collection activities. From October to December, a "special collection countermeasure period" was operated to intensively collect delinquent amounts.

As a result, in November last year, the city received the Excellence Award in the local tax category (Award from the Minister of the Interior and Safety) for "real estate shake-up through delinquency collection" at the "15th Korea Local Finance Awards" hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, gaining external recognition of its achievements.

In particular, the city collected 284.9 million won in local taxes through a "real estate shake-up," in which it conducted a substitution auction of junior mortgage rights—a first in the nation. The real estate shake-up is the process of making seized real estate into "meaningful real estate" by leveraging expertise such as re-examining interest relationships and rights from the ground up and securing effective receivables.

A city official stated, "Although the economic situation was difficult due to high inflation, high interest rates, high exchange rates, and increased household debt, making collection conditions unfavorable, we were able to achieve 'seven consecutive years of over 4 billion won in collections' through active collection activities including the operation of high-amount delinquency tracking mobile units," and added, "To achieve 'eight consecutive years of over 4 billion won in collections,' we will continuously uncover new collection techniques and make an all-out effort in collection."