Late Samsung chairman’s household promote $2 billion value of shares to assist pay big South Korean inheritance tax

• The previous Samsung Electronics chairman, who was South Korea’s richest particular person, died in 2020.

• Lee Kun-hee’s household is now promoting billions value of shares to pay inheritance taxes.

• South Korea has a high inheritance tax fee of fifty%, the world’s second highest after Japan.

The widow of the previous Samsung Electronics chairman and her two daughters offered billions value of shares to assist repay their inheritance tax, The Korea Times reported, citing business sources.

Lee Kun-hee was the richest particular person in Korea on the time of his dying in October 2020, with a fortune value an estimated $21 billion, per Reuters.

However because of South Korea’s high inheritance tax fee of fifty% — the second highest on the earth — the household was hit with greater than 12 trillion gained, which is now round $9 billion, in tax payments.

“It’s our civic responsibility and accountability to pay all taxes,” the household said in 2021, including that “the inheritance tax cost is without doubt one of the largest ever in Korea and globally.”

This week, Lee’s widow Hong Ra-hee and her daughters Boo-jin and Search engine optimisation-hyun offered a mixed $2 billion value of shares to lift funds to assist pay the invoice.

Shares in Samsung Electronics have been made with a 1.2% to 2% low cost to the inventory’s earlier closing value due to excessive demand, Bloomberg reported.

The household additionally stated in 2021 that it might donate around 23,000 pieces of their art collection, together with works by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí and cubist Pablo Picasso, to South Korean nationwide museums to try to lower down the large tax invoice.

The household added that it was additionally planning to present $900 million to philanthropic causes, as Enterprise Insider beforehand reported.

Lee Kun-hee’s son Jay Y. Lee had been de facto head of Samsung since 2014, the BBC reported.

The youthful Lee has twiced confronted jail time for his half in a authorities corruption scandal after he was accused of bribing a former president to assist win help for his succession at Samsung.

He was pardoned in 2022 after the Justice Ministry dominated that as a key businessman, he was wanted to assist the nation battle a “nationwide financial disaster.”

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