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Actress Song Hye-kyo responds to tax evasion rumors

August 19, 2014

Says she is a victim of accountant’s mishap who paid more than $3 million to NTS in 2012.

Song Hye-kyo

Actress Song Hye-kyo attempted to douse rumors of her committing tax evasion, worth billions of won, arguing her tax accountant had mishandled her paper work without her knowledge for years.

Song’s management company United Artist Agency (UAA) announced through a press release Tuesday she hadn’t known about her bad tax report history from 2009 to 2011 ― period which she owes about 2.5 billion won (about $2.46 million) ― until she received a notification from the National Tax Service (NTS) a year later in 2012.

“As a result of our tax accountant’s critical mistakes, Song had to pay a heavy tax fine as well as an additional tax fee, doubling her usual annual payments to the NTS,” said UAA. Song was nearly charged all of her earnings as due income tax, with 95 percent of her income being charged in 2011 and 89 percent in 2012. Together with additional tax, Song tendered to NTS a total of 3.1 billion won (slightly over $3 million) on October 2012.

UAA said Song’s tax accountant has been brought to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance for possible penalties.

“Despite the situation, largely due to the tax accountant’s personal error, we acknowledge the root of the incident is the mishandling of the tax papers by the tax payer in question,” said UAA referring to the actress. “Song, as a celebrity, should have been more careful with her taxes too. We sincerely apologize.”