Suwon City Auditor Secures 1.8 Billion Won in Tax Refunds Through Careful Verification of Refund Requirements

Suwon Special City (Mayor Lee Jae-joon) secured a total of 1.838 billion won in value-added tax refunds by carefully verifying input VAT eligible for deduction among the VAT incurred during the process of establishing public facilities.

Goods and services supplied by local governments are in principle exempt from value-added tax, but the portions used for taxable businesses stipulated by law—such as leasing and lodging—are eligible for input VAT deduction.

However, the Suwon City Auditor took note of the fact that VAT incurred during public facility construction could be refunded and began a comprehensive inspection of taxable businesses at district offices and business divisions starting from December of last year.

By April of this year, the auditor's investigation of taxable businesses at district offices and business divisions identified three facilities meeting deduction requirements—Ilwol Arboretum, Cheongnyangsan Suwon Camping Ground, and Namsuheon—and calculated the anticipated refund amount. Subsequently, the auditor notified relevant departments of the monitoring results and requested claims.

In June, each responsible department promptly filed requests for adjustment with the competent tax office. After reviewing documents and confirming the site, the tax office decided on the refund in September, and Suwon City received a total of 1.838 billion won in refunds.

An official from Suwon City's auditor office stated, "We thoroughly examined taxable businesses to establish grounds for refund, and the responsible departments swiftly implemented the process from filing adjustment requests to revenue measures, producing results."