South Korea's popular Internet company Daum Kakao is said to have undergone a tax investigation for three times during the last seven years. The number of companies, which were subject to a tax investigation for three times, is only 17 out of a total 28,000 relevant corporations.
Lawmaker Hong Jong-hak, the main opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy said during the parliamentary inspection on Thursday, "Strangely, whenever big incidents such as mad-cow disease, Sewol ferry sinking and the outbreak of MERS virus occurred, Daum Kakao was subject to tax investigation."
He added, "The things that Daum Kakao underwent tax investigation for three times during Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations are considered the suppression of the search engine company."
The Internet company had tax audits right after the mad-cow disease incident in 2008, Sewol ferry sinking in 2014 and the outbreak of MERS virus this year.
Further, the investigation was done by the investigation team of Seoul's tax agency which corresponds to the central investigation team of the prosecution. Like search and seizure, they picked up all the related documents without any prior notice. This type of investigation is so rare that the number of the search and seizure investigation stood at only 10 percent.
During the past seven years, a total of 28,000 companies were subject to tax investigation in Korea. Among them, 26,000 companies (91.6%) had only once, 2,300 had twice (8.31%) and only 17 had three times (0.06%).
Hong said, "Tax investigation against Daum Kakao is considered political suppression," adding that "Considering there are some conglomerates which did not have any tax investigation for the last five years, the strong investigation against the Internet company for three times should be interpreted as political investigation."
