Korean Tax Officers Track Down Crypto Belonging To 15K Tax Evaders

Korean tax officers tracked down crypto holdings that belonged to about 1,500 tax evaders and seized $22 million worth of it directly out of their exchange accounts as we can see more in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The South Korean Tax officers discovered digital assets belonging to 1566 users and heads of companies even those which were referred to as top tax delinquents across three crypto exchanges. The authorities seized $22 million in total from 676 of them in order to compensate unpaid taxes. About 118 people already paid $1.12 million in order to get their crypto back. A city government official said:

“We are continually being asked by delinquent taxpayers to refrain from selling their cryptocurrencies as they will pay their taxes.”

They explained that the individuals affected by the seizure aren’t expecting the prices of crypto to go up and decided that it could be more profitable to pay their taxes in return for digital assets. For example, an unnamed head of hospital that had $11.2 million in crypto, paid up to $520,000 in taxes and provided security for the rest coins asking the government, not the sell his coins. Another user who owes the government about $20,000 asked not to have his coins sold for at least two years as, by that time, the prices of the assets will grow enough to cover his taxes and to also bring him some profit. Out of the seized cryptocurrencies, the most popular one was Bitcoin, represented in about 19% followed by DragonVein and ripple as well as ETH and Stellar.

As reported previously, the topic of taxes is becoming quite contentious among crypto holders. Just a day ago, still unconfirmed but the reports suggested that the new tax law is about to be proposed in the US and raised taxes to as much as 43% for gains above $1 million. Investors across the board as well as crypto holders, reacted with a massive selloff because they thought the coins will enter the red zone. This suggests that if approved, the new law can result in strong pressure of crypto holders that are wealthier when it comes to paying taxes.

Speaking of taxation, The Norwegian tax regulator advised crypto holders to declare their earnings and all crypto holders in the country already were warned to declare their earnings before the deadline. According to the agency, failure to report taxes could result in “paying additional tax.”