The Ministry of Strategy and Finance of Korea announced the Tax Reform Proposals for 2015 on 6 August 2014.
According to the proposals a new corporate accumulated earnings tax will be levied on excess cash of large corporations with equity capital exceeding KRW 50 billion (US$49 million). The tax will also be imposed on corporations that are members of an enterprise group with mutual investment restriction. Small and medium-sized enterprises are exempted from this new tax regime.
The new tax regime will become effective for taxable years beginning on or after 1 January 2015 and before 31 December 2017. The proposals for 2015 revised the current debt to equity ratio of 3:1 into 2:1 and this will become effective for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2015.
According to 2015 Proposal the minimum information reporting criteria for cross-border transactions will be revised which will become effective for taxable years beginning on or after 1 January 2015. Also, the current statute of limitation period of 10 years has been proposed to be extended to 15 years for cross-border tax evasion matters.
A new penalty regime has been proposed for non-filers or under-reporting of income obtained by cross-border transactions and the new rate will be 60% of the amount of tax evasion.
