K-actress Han Hyo Joo is lucky she doesn’t work in Mainland China because she would totally get blacklisted by the government for this, tax evasion/underpayment is such a sticking point over there. The actress’s agency released a statement today that the actress paid an additional $55,000 USD in taxes after a tax audit revealed an underpayment. Her agency said this was not tax evasion but simply miscalculation and said that she was flagged for the audit in a standard review process. I find Han Hyo Joo pretty teflon in South Korean in terms of her career so I don’t think this will impact her.
Additional 55k in taxes, makes one wonder how much she earns in order to pay so much taxes.
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic…? I pay more than 55k in taxes and I‘m a regular person 😂
It’s 55k USD, not KRW. Can an average employee even earn 55k USD per year? Plus it’s an additional amount on top of what she had already paid.
If you’re paying 55k USD in taxes yearly, then you’re definitely not a regular person considering the average annual salary in the US is in the 60k range.
@lilith – seriously? I’m not sure where you live but where I do, the average income is 80k. So either you’re not from NA, or you’re thinking minimum wage if you are questioning a person making 55k.
@Terry Umm, actually, I very much consider myself a regular person – as in I don’t need the support of food banks and can pay my mortgage and go on vacations yearly. And I pay more than 55k in taxes. Depending on the province/state and tax brackets, people in my area pay 30% in taxes or more. I make $250k, so that’s 55k easily.
You may not consider me a regular person, but I do. I live in a regular home and have a regular finance job. I don’t make millions like HHJ. So in the context of THIS conversation, 55k is short change for her. Because just from sponsorship alone, she makes 20x more than me.
55k? That’s way too small for it to be considered tax evasion LOL. It’s pennies for someone like HHJ. She’s not getting cancelled for that. No one would be.
@butterfly. I hope she won’t be affected coz I like her a lot
The amount of taxes don’t matter when it comes to tax evasion. Tax evasion has more to do with deliberately not paying the correct taxes or misdeclaring or underdeclaring your income to avoid paying correct taxes. Besides, her agency already clarified that it is merely underpayment which means she already paid her taxes but audit revealed some adjustments. No tax evasion in that case.
Yes it does. Evasion of $200 for someone who makes 100k is not easily proved as evasion. Because the amount is minimal relative to a the income. That’s why it’s considered underpayment or miscalculation.
Now if someone underpaid 20k from their 100k salary, that is easily proved as tax evasion because you can’t possibly under calculate an amount so high. Very relevant info in HHJ’s case and why I very clearly stated this is NOT tax evasion and is an underpayment. No one’s even making a fuss because it’s that obvious.
I don’t think she’s Teflon in SK, as she has been badly impacted by her family’s bullying/cover-up issue. Her strong card I think is her agency. She belongs to a powerful agency, Lee Byung Hyun’s BH Ent, hence most actors there (with certain issues) are still able to land roles.
Agree. She was arguably the biggest actress in her age group prior to her family controversy. Now, Chun Woo Hee, Shin Hae Sun, Jeon Yeo Been, etc bring in more buzz on Korean forums and SNS.
She should fire her tax accountant and get a competent one, who knows his/her job, someone who wouldn’t expose her to tax audit always, big or small. Knetz are still cancelling her for her brother’s sin every chance they get. Controversy such as this is avoidable and she has 3 projects waiting to be released. How would this impact her projects esp Moving which is big budgeted?
I honestly don’t understand why this is newsworthy. Miscalculations in taxes for mid to high income earners happen all the time in the US, for example and is not considered tax evasion unless a deliberate attempt to evade payment is found. Not sure what the tax code is like in S. Korea, but here it’s quite possible for this to happen, an audit from the IRS and subsequent payments of what is owed including penalties and fines, typically follows. It’s not like she was audited and refused to pay what was owed. I wonder if she had made an overpayment and was owed a reimbursement, would it still be newsworthy? Perhaps, I’m looking at this problem with different lenses and than if I lived in S. Korea, but I can’t help feeling that celebrities are held to some ridiculously high standards. In the same vein, I fail to understand why a news article is published when celebrities purchase buildings with their own hard earned money.
Dunno about teflon, as she has had some shady controversies that were swept under the carpet and she was heavily criticised for it. Seems like she comes from an influential fam and has strong agency backing founded by the shadiest A lister in Korea lol. So am sure they know how to sweep dodgy things under the carpet
That is not a lot for someone like her, it happens.
She wouldn’t be cancelled in China either actually. You get this same opportunity first, to make up for what you missed. That is not publicised and a person is good to go. What happened in cases like DL is that they didn’t use this so then the government slammed down. Then you get cancelled but even that can be temporary.
In the first picture she looks like Song hye Kyo ??? A few actors had to pay additional taxes too , Lee Min Ho and some others this year .Nothing new .