韩国国税厅调查Baemin涉嫌向海外母公司转移逾1万亿韩元利润、少缴约1000亿韩元预提税

Tax Agency Probes Baemin Over 100 Billion Won in Unpaid Withholding Tax - Seoul Economic Daily
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Lee Seong-geul, head of the National Tax Service's investigation bureau, announces the launch of tax probes into suspected evaders accused of stoking price instability at a briefing at the Government Complex Sejong 2 on the 14th.
Baedal Minjok, South Korea's largest food ordering and delivery platform, is facing a tax audit over allegations that it shifted more than 1 trillion won in domestic profits to its overseas parent company without paying about 100 billion won ($72 million) in taxes.
The National Tax Service said on the 14th that it had launched audits into 41 companies closely tied to household living costs — including egg farms, processed food makers, restaurant franchises and fashion platforms — after detecting suspected tax evasion totaling 1 trillion won.
By sector, the targets include 23 distributors of agricultural and livestock products, 16 processed food makers, restaurant franchises and delivery platforms, and two fashion platforms. Eight are mid-sized companies and 33 are small and medium-sized businesses, including two firms listed on the KOSPI. Of the total, 38 are food-related businesses.
The most notable name on the list is Baedal Minjok, known as Baemin. The tax agency believes the company sent more than 1 trillion won in profits earned from its domestic business to its German parent without paying about 100 billion won in withholding tax owed in South Korea.
When a domestic company pays dividends or interest to an overseas parent, it is required to withhold tax. The tax agency suspects Baemin used complex capital transactions to treat the payments as something other than dividend or interest income, moving the profits abroad while avoiding withholding tax.
Baemin is also suspected of providing business support services to overseas affiliates free of charge and improperly claiming value-added tax deductions. Those amounts are relatively small, however, and the tax agency is focusing on the withholding tax issue tied to the more than 1 trillion won in profits moved abroad, according to sources. A Baemin official said the company could not confirm anything related to a tax audit.
The tax agency is also examining suspected evasion at other companies linked to living costs. Eleven egg farms are suspected of underreporting more than 40 billion won in income, with amounts ranging from 2 billion won to 7 billion won per business. Some farms demanded off-the-books transactions when selling eggs or spread sales across shell poultry farms registered in a spouse's name, investigators found.
Suspected evasion at processed food makers totals 200 billion won to 300 billion won. Some companies raised product prices citing higher raw material and logistics costs while folding expenses that should have been borne by domestic and overseas affiliates into product costs, the agency said. One KOSPI-listed food conglomerate is also suspected of covering about 5 billion won in labor costs for an overseas subsidiary and providing about 50 billion won in irregular support without collecting more than 6 billion won in interest.
At franchise operators, the agency found cases of outlets run under employees' names and supercars registered to the company being used privately by owner families. Among importers of agricultural and livestock products, some set up front companies to obtain additional benefits under quota tariffs and tariff-rate quotas (TRQ) before dispersing sales. The two fashion platforms are suspected of omitting sales and inflating costs.
The tax agency said the audits do not target price increases or high commission rates themselves. It said it opened the investigations after detecting separate evasion allegations — such as false cost accounting, omitted sales and unpaid withholding tax — while reviewing the tax compliance of companies with significant influence over living costs.
The agency plans to focus on whether the production costs cited as grounds for price increases were properly treated for tax purposes and whether transactions with business partners were conducted normally.
"We will focus on whether the production costs used to justify price increases are appropriate, whether transactions with business partners are normal, and how the owner families built their wealth," said Lee Sung-geul, head of the tax agency's investigation bureau. "If we find evidence of tax crimes, such as hiding income through borrowed-name accounts, we will immediately convert the case into a criminal tax investigation."
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Original reporting by
Seo Min-woo
for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.
Translated by AI on
Sep 14, 2026
View Korean original
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