S. Korea to beef up monitoring of overseas bank accounts

SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's tax office said Tuesday that it plans to step up monitoring of overseas bank accounts held by its companies and citizens in an effort to help prevent tax evasion.
Owners of overseas financial accounts with more than 1 billion won (US$918,000) as of 2010 will be required to report them to regional tax offices in accordance with updated administrative guidelines, the National Tax Service (NTS) said.
Failure to report such accounts will result in stiff fines, and violators will be referred to law enforcement agencies for suspected tax evasion in serious cases, the NTS said.
For this year, fines equal to 5 percent of the amount held in the accounts can be levied, with the total to reach a maximum of 45 percent for owners and businesses that repeatedly ignore the revised reporting rules, it added.
"All overseas accounts with more than 1 billion won should be reported," the NTS said. "The name of the owner, account number and bank information must be submitted, in addition to maximum amount of money deposited."
People and companies that report their accounts in a timely manner will not be required to provide very detailed documentation about why such accounts were created, it said.
yonngong@yna.co.kr