The South Korean city of Paju has collected 100 million won ($72,000) in unpaid local taxes by seizing taxpayers’ virtual assets. Seizing virtual assets is an aggressive tax collection measure that targets people who have the ability to pay but hide their virtual assets in order to deliberately default on payments.
According to the city, 64 people who owed more than 1 million won in taxes were checked to see if they had opened accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges, and it was found that the 64 people had assets worth 280 million won (about 200,000 U.S. dollars) in their accounts. The total amount they owed reached 650 million won (about 460,000 U.S. dollars). The city confiscated their virtual assets and collected the arrears by processing 100 million won of them, and planned to collect the remaining 180 million won by selling or collecting the money.
