26/10/22

SOUTH KOREA: Inadequate Corporate Tax Paid by Netflix.

As published on businesskorea.co.kr, Wednesday 26 October, 2022.

Lawmaker Kim Seung-soo remarked on Oct. 25 that Netflix Korea’s 2019 to 2021 sales amounted to 1.233 trillion won and 77.8 percent of the sales were sent to its parent company in the United States. “The figures were 185.9 billion won and 65.7 percent in 2019, 415.5 billion won and 77.1 percent in 2020, and 631.6 billion won and 81.8 percent in 2021,” he said.

According to him, Netflix Korea paid a corporate tax of no more than 5.86 billion won in that period, 590 million won in 2019, 2.18 billion won in 2020 and 3.09 billion won in 2021. “Netflix Korea continuously raised its sales cost ratio in order to minimize its corporate tax payment,” he pointed out.

He also mentioned that the company’s appropriate tax for that period is at least 50 billion won and measures need to be prepared so that global tech giants’ tax avoidance in South Korea cannot be repeated.