In a case that a Korean resident who is a CEO or a de facto manager of the foreign company in a foreign jurisdiction embezzled the overseas income of the company, it comes into question whether he or she should be punished for the crime of tax evasion...
In a case that a Korean resident who is a CEO or a de facto manager of the foreign company in a foreign jurisdiction embezzled the overseas income of the company, it comes into question whether he or she should be punished for the crime of tax evasion. The Supreme Court has ruled that a CEO who embezzled and possessed the profits of the domestic company may not be punished for the tax evasion of individual income on the assumption that such taxation may be imposed by the dispositon of income. This ruling, however, does not mean that the CEO or a de facto manager of the foreign company who deferred his or her income overseas by embezzling the corporation profits cannot be punished for the tax evasion of individual tax at all. Especially, it must be considered offshore tax evasion is elaborately designed in order to avoid the dispositon of income by virtue of the jurisdictional limitation. In such cases, if it is proven that the profits of the foreign company were illicitly belonged to the CEO or the de facto manager as earned income or income from dividends in reality, he or she must be liable to pay income tax without the dispositon of income. In addition, such fraudulence to conceal overseas income must be strictly regulated by criminal punishment.