K-star Cha Eun Woo Under Investigation for Alleged Tax Evasion of Around $13.6 Million USD
Oh this is not good news to wake up and see for me. If true what a shame, a clean reputation to date tanked to save on taxes. K-ent is reporting that actor-singer Cha Eun Woo is under investigation for tax evasion by the government, and it actually started in spring of 2025 so last year. The gist of it is, his agency Fantagio signed a contract with a personal office company where Cha Eun Woo’s mom is listed as the sole director, and paid that company to manage Cha Eun Woo’s promotional activities. The investigation is looking into whether that is tax evasion as payments to the company for services will less pay taxes, and because that company is allegedly a shell company with no office and staff so how could it perform the services it was paid for. True dat. Netizens are now saying Cha Eun Woo enlisting in July of 2025 last year so close to the investigation starting was to go hide in the army and hope this news doesn’t come out until it’s resolved. The amount of alleged unpaid taxes is $13.6M USD which is the highest amount to date of any Korean star that has been investigated for tax evasion. Ouch. I’m not saying he will be permanently cancelled even if this is found to be true, in Mainland China he would have been, but in South Korea plenty of stars have been investigated for tax evasion, found to owe taxes, paid it, issued an abject apology, and gone on with their careers. Except it will always be mentioned by the netizens going forward calling that person a “tax dodger”.
I’m surprised if this is true, but oof, the things that some very rich people do to evade paying their financial dues.
IF I were rich and famous, I’d dot the i’s and cross the t’s, when it came to taxes. If intentional, it’s not murder, abuse or anything, but, well, criminal greed just isn’t a good look.
This reminds me yoo jaesuk, someone said he even intentionally overpaid his tax using another calculation. For example if he needs to pay 2.6 mil he would pay 4.1 mil. He really knows his clean image is too important to lose
Wow he is loaded to incur that much tax due. It’s not even on his own personal income. Didn’t realise he’s at that level to earn that much.
Brand endorsement give lot of money compared to acting jobs. You don’t even need to work hard for months at the filming set
K-netz love a rumour. And haters like to start rumours. Then people get hurt. Hopefully it’s only a rumour.
Hopefully. That’s a lot of money to pay back. I dont even know who this is
Cam he be that rich?
Cha Eun Woo. Member of Astro kpop group and has been building his acting career. Brand ambassador.
When i saw the amt i was like wow this guy has really been raking in the money over the years. Mostly based off his looks as he has minimal to no talent. Its interesting that its mostly the rich who evade taxes, I guess not all stereotypes about them are wrong, the rich really are greedy and hence get richer. Aside to this, this guy’s squeaky clean image has never sat well with me, there’s something not very authentic about it and I think we will find out the truth one day.
I watched the 6 episode reality show set in Finland that he was in. He certainly comes across as a kind and quiet person and always willing to pitch in. But of course, there were cameras rolling – no one really knows what celebrities are like apart from their loved ones.
Taxes get bigger the more you earn and its jarring having to give so much to the government, so I can understand tax minimisation strategies, but not evasion. We will have to wait and see what eventuates.
Uh all of those variety shows are scripted af and I remember for that particular one, they were assigned personas, it was part of their whole promo content even
Tax evasion is such a disgusting thing to me, especially when the rich person in qn is more than capable to pay it.
True or not I doubt he knew his own tax stuff so it is the work of tax agents or his own agency. Haven’t south korea learn not to jump to conclusions or try to kill people’s career for something they probably didn’t even do?
Lucky for him he is not a chinese citizen
True
If true, he’s dumb as rocks. The risk of getting caught is simply not worth it as he’s already swimming in money and will make even more in the future.
Eunwoo is very loaded. Sure he doesn’t get bts or BLACKPINK level millions per endorsement. But he like wonyoung does 15-20 cfs per year and her prince is like half million usd per year contract. So eunwoo will be higher. That is like tens of millions per year usd from endorsements. Add dramas etc. he is senior so he gets more cut from agency. Someone said he earned like 55 million usd to evade such taxes ( korea tax rate 45% ). I wonder how rich bts and BLACKPINK members must be at this point jeez. 100s of millions. Considering BLACKPINK has sold more tickets than spice girls as girlgroup historic achievement and bts going to be on huge tour
$55 million USD? That’s actually not surprising considering many NBA stars already earned that much a year.
I have relatives moving away from Cali just to avoid $300K tax money on stock dividends alone. They are just ordinary folks with more savings. Many celebs can easily make that much of $55 million USD a year.
Not many celebrities..team sports is another level phnoemonen. Only ten Hollywood actors can make that much per year. Musicians and athletes make that much money. But not all. And his annual income can be around 20 million usd which most hollywood actresses make. And korean celebs are better investors
So, basically, if Ive got this right, mum’s company’s tax rate is 25%-corporate tax rate, CEW’s personal earnings tax rate is 40%. What does mum’s company do to ‘receive/be paid’ presumably, quite a large sum? Either it does a lot of legit work and there is plenty of evidence, doesn’t do much, or nothing and there is evidence to that, OR there is fake evidence created to pretend it is more productive.
I hope mum’s Corporation A company has been doing a really good job at whatever services it provides.
I know shit about taxes, beyond my own, personal, low rate situation, but I guess this, or variations of, must be a common practice. Many many rich, famous people in Korea will be reviewing their own financial planning. Some of them panicking.
I never jump to conclusions anymore after seeing how some actors have been used by their agency to launder money.
And the actor couldn’t get away from the agency, and no one could save him.
Justice for Yu Menglong.
South Korea’s economy took a huge turn from the past booming path after the country increased economic ties with China. GDP even contracted in Q4 2025. SK’s big conglomerates like Samsung and memory chip guru like Hynix can’t control their proprietary advanced chip technology from being stolen by China due to their close business ties with China. lol. Certainly SK NTS (tax service) now would turn their eyes to the wealthy for revenues LOL, a tactics used by their economic buddy China for years. lol
Dispatched reported he earned over 100 billion won which is like 80 million usd. After agency’s cut. His cut must be like 55 million usd. His mom dad and brother all opened shell companies . Korean tax rate is like 45% and he paid like 20-25% only
Yes paying tax is painful but he was making such money per year. Like 20 million usd a year per year with CFS n drama without global tours etc. jeez he was.loaded. now he.might have to pay 30 million usd in fines and might never seen such endorsements again. Idiottt
I feel like it’s usually getting their personal vs one-man company stuff all mixed up, but a whole paper company sounds sketchy. I hope this is something he can just pay and sincerely repent. And then the family be banned from ever opening a business.
I hope this is a warning to other celebrities to be more careful and honest about their taxes.
Some people here seem clueless about dealing with higher-rate taxes. At that point, you’re not handling them yourself—you hire accountants to manage everything, and you just foot the bill when they send it over, along with their fees. But if those accountants make a serious mistake, you’re the one who ends up in trouble.
Of course, issues can come up from questionable or downright wrong personal decisions, and that’s when things can start to get pretty tricky.
You might be too young or not have enough money to fully understand how real life works.