SEOUL: South Korea’s tax revenue rose 51.9 trillion won (US$42 billion) in 2022 from a year earlier on the back of an increased collection of corporate income taxes, coupled with revitalised consumption, the finance ministry said Monday.
The government collected 395.9 trillion won in taxes last year, up 15.1 per cent from the 344.1 trillion won tallied in 2021, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Yonhap reported that in 2020, the tax revenue fell by 7.9 trillion won due to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, before rebounding by 58.5 trillion won on-year in 2021.
The ministry attributed the rise to an increased collection of corporate income taxes, which shot up 47.1 per cent, or 33.2 trillion won, to reach 103.6 trillion won.
The collection of income taxes also gathered ground as more people were employed on the back of eased pandemic regulations in 2022, advancing 12.8 per cent on-year to 128.7 trillion won.
The number of employed people came to 28.08 million in 2022, up 816,000 from the previous year, separate data from the government showed earlier. It marked the largest number since 2000 when the nation reported an on-year increase of 882,000 jobs.
The collection of value-added taxes climbed 14.6 per cent to 81.6 trillion won on increased consumption, it added.
But the collection of taxes from stock transactions dipped 38.5 per cent to 6.3 trillion won amid the bearish market. South Korea’s main index crashed 25 per cent in 2022. - Bernama
