Purpose: Responding to Tax Evasion That Harms Public Livelihood
From Private School Teachers to Professional Scalping Enterprises… Tax Audits Target 17 Scalpers
Person A is a scalper who resells tickets for concerts and professional baseball games on major ticket sales platforms. A mainly handles performances by top domestic singers, musicals, and professional baseball postseason games. For major concerts, A resold tickets for up to 2.4 million won, about 15 times the original price, and for key professional baseball games, tickets originally priced at 100,000 won were resold for around 2 million won, engaging in typical profiteering as a scalper. Despite selling most tickets at more than double the original price, A underreported earnings. The National Tax Service (NTS) has observed that A’s credit card spending has consistently exceeded reported income and that A has accumulated deposits and real estate worth about 800 million won over several years from unclear sources. Accordingly, the NTS plans to accurately assess the total income earned from scalping and collect the underreported amount.
On November 6, the National Tax Service announced that it will conduct tax audits on a total of 17 scalpers, including corporate-type scalpers equipped with systematic professional organizations and partner companies.
An Deoksoo, Director of the Investigation Bureau at the National Tax Service, stated, “We want to send a strong message to scalpers, who have commercially exploited the pure enthusiasm of fans and are representative violators of public livelihood, that we will relentlessly pursue and impose strict penalties for tax evasion that undermines fairness and common sense.” He added, “We are focusing on the habitual tax evasion practices of scalpers who have profited by depriving citizens of their legitimate rights, and we are conducting rigorous tax investigations to eradicate such behavior.”
This investigation targets those with the strongest suspicion of tax evasion among professional scalpers whose annual sales transactions far exceed the 280 transactions per person recorded by the top 1% of sellers on major ticket trading platforms. Among them are public institution employees and private school teachers who continued scalping activities despite social expectations for public accountability. The National Tax Service estimates that these individuals have distributed at least 20 billion won worth of scalped tickets through tens of thousands of transactions.
Online scalpers who use secondhand trading platforms typically have a simple profit structure of reselling tickets at a premium. The problem is that their influence has rapidly expanded, riding the growth of fandom culture and secondhand trading platforms. The subjects of this investigation secured over 40,000 major tickets over several years and sold them at up to 30 times the original price, making exorbitant profits. Some intentionally concealed their income by receiving payments into personal accounts and deleting ticket sale posts without marking them as ‘sold’ to avoid revealing their sales history on secondhand trading boards.
Scalpers specializing in proxy ticket purchasing are also under investigation. Known as ‘proxy ticketing agents,’ these individuals are professionals with specialized know-how, and some have developed into organized businesses generating high profits. They underreported commission income earned through proxy ticketing, drove high-end imported cars, and unlawfully benefited from tax reductions for start-up small businesses. They also used accounts under borrowed names to disperse income and reduce taxes, or used diverted income to purchase domestic and overseas stocks worth hundreds of millions of won.
Sellers of macro programs that enable illegal ticket purchases are also included in the NTS investigation. The NTS suspects that a target who has sold macro programs since the mid-2010s, boasting thousands of sales, received profits through accounts under borrowed names, failed to report the income, and used the funds for personal purposes.
Director An stated, “Given the impact and urgency of this issue on public livelihood and market order, this tax investigation will focus on swiftly and thoroughly verifying the scalpers’ income details, fund flows, and any hidden assets.” He added, “We will actively utilize all available means, including financial tracking and FIU information, to identify all cash transactions related to ticket scalping, collect the appropriate taxes, and dedicate our efforts to upholding tax justice.”
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