199 S. Koreans hold more than 5 bln won in overseas financial accounts

A total of 199 private and corporate deposit holders in South Korea each have more than 5 billion won (US$4 million) in their overseas financial accounts, data showed Monday. There were 199 cases reported for overseas financial accounts worth more than 5 billion won in June, with the reported amount totaling 10.8 trillion won, according to the data provided by the National Tax Service (NTS) to Rep. Kwon Young-se of the ruling Grand National Party. South Korea started receiving voluntary reports on overseas financial accounts worth more than 1 billion won starting this year. A total of 525 cases, totaling 11.5 trillion won, were reported, the data showed. Of the 5,231 reported accounts, there were 5,107 savings deposit accounts, while the remaining 124 were equity accounts. There were 211 private deposit holders and 314 corporate deposit holders, with the average amount for each group reaching 4.6 billion won and 33.5 billion won, the data showed. The biggest amount held by deposit holders of each group stood at 60.1 billion won and 1.7 trillion won. The NTS is conducting an investigation on owners of unreported foreign financial accounts, using data provided by overseas tax authorities. Tax evaders are subject to fines worth 5 percent of the unreported amount.