SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s tax revenue rose by 51.9 trillion won (42 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022 from a year earlier on the back of improved corporate income taxes as well as revitalized consumption, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
The government collected 395.9 trillion won in taxes last year, up 15.1 percent from 344.1 trillion won in 2021, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
In 2020, tax revenue decreased by 7.9 trillion won due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, before rebounding by 58.5 trillion won on an annual basis in 2021.
The ministry attributed the increase to a rise in corporate income taxes, which jumped 47.1 percent, or 33.2 trillion won, to 103.6 trillion won.
Income taxes increased 12.8 percent year on year to 128.7 trillion won in 2022 as more people were employed on the back of easing pandemic-related regulations.
Separate data from the government earlier showed that the number of workers reached 28.08 million in 2022, an increase of 816,000 from the previous year. It is the largest number since 2000 when the country reported an annual increase of 882,000 jobs.
It added that value-added taxes jumped 14.6 percent to 81.6 trillion won as consumption increased.
But tax collection from stock transactions fell 38.5 percent to 6.3 trillion won amid the market downturn. South Korea’s main index collapsed by 25% in 2022.
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aya@yna.co.kr