Actor Lee Byung Hun was fined 100 million won ($75,000). The agency explained that it happened at the stage of normalizing accounting, not tax evasion. While actor Kwon Sang Woo was reported to have been fined 1 Billion won as an additional fine.
On February 28, Aju Economic Daily reported that Lee Byung Hun and his agency BH Entertainment were subject to an irregular (special) tax audit by the National Tax Service in September last year and were fined hundreds of millions of won. In addition, they added that it may be related to real estate investment using individuals and corporations.
An official from BH Entertainment refuted back, saying, “This is the same position that we originally expressed. Actor Lee Byung Hun has never done anything unpleasant related to taxes in the past 30 years. The additional charges were made in the normal stage of accounting for the difference in the timing of deposit of advertising guarantees and the bonus paid to all employees by actor’s own money as company expenses.”
Meanwhile, Lee Byung Hun made his debut as a talent for the 14th KBS open recruitment in 1991. He won the 37th Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Actor in 2016, the 56th Daejong Film Festival for Best Actor in 2020, and the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards for Best Actor in Film. He married fellow actor Lee Min Jung in 2013 and has a son.
Regarding the report that said Kwon Sang Woo paid 1 billion won ($700,000) in additional fines, Kwon Sang Woo’s agency Su Company also said, “The tax authorities demanded a clarification on the timing of the profit and loss attribution, and it was different from the previous report, so we revised it and voluntarily paid the difference. (During the accounting process) payment and refund occurred at the same time, so it was reported corrected. There were no omission and evasion.”
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