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| The late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, center, is seen with his daughters Lee Boo-jin, left, and Lee Seo-hyun at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas in 2010. On the right is his wife Hong Ra-hee. Courtesy of Samsung Group |
Samsung family to pay record inheritance tax of $10.7 bil.
By Kim Bo-eun
Heirs of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee will pay more than 12 trillion won ($10.7 billion) in inheritance taxes, while separately donating one trillion won to support the fight against COVID-19 and research into rare child diseases, the group announced Wednesday.
The Lee family, including his wife and three children, also decided to donate around 23,000 works from the deceased's art collection, valued at around 2.5 trillion won, to national museums.
The combined worth of the inheritance tax and donations is more than half of the late Lee's assets estimated at over 26 trillion won, including stocks, real estate and artwork. The legendary head of Samsung was the richest man in Korea.
The family plans to pay the tax ― one of the largest ever imposed worldwide ― in six installments over the next five years, but details of how they would do this were not revealed. Samsung also failed to announce how the late Lee's shares in group affiliates, including its crown jewel Samsung Electronics, would be allocated. Payment of the first installment of the inheritance tax is due Friday.
The late Lee's family members ― his wife and former Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, director Hong Ra-hee, only son Jae-yong, older daughter Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and younger daughter Samsung Welfare Foundation Chairwoman Lee Seo-hyun ― are expected to pay the 12-trillion won inheritance tax with dividends coming from Samsung affiliate stocks, and possibly loans.
This is one of the largest-ever inheritance tax bills in history ― it is more than three times the total inheritance tax paid in Korea last year, and 3.5 times the amount imposed on the late Apple founder Steve Jobs' estate.
Most of Lee's art collection will be donated to state institutions ― 21,600 ancient cultural properties, including national treasures such as the Joseon-era landscape painting "Inwang Jesaekdo" by legendary painter Jeong Seon, will go to local museums.
A total of 1,600 works will be donated to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, including Western pieces such as Claud Monet's "The Water Lily Pond" and painting by Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso. Lee was an avid collector of fine art, particularly ancient Korean works.
Of the 1 trillion won donated for medical purposes, 700 billion will be for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, with 500 billion used to establish the nation's first hospital for infectious diseases.
The remaining 200 billion won will go toward setting up a state-of-the-art infectious diseases research center affiliated with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and into vaccines and medicines research.
Another 300 billion will be used to fund treatments for pediatric cancer and rare childhood diseases. Samsung family members will set up a committee at the Seoul National University's Children's Hospital to carry out the program to assist underprivileged children. Costs for genetic testing, chemotherapy and other treatments will be covered for 17,000 underprivileged young patients over the next decade.
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| Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong / Korea Times file |
The late Lee passed away in October last year after being hospitalized for years following a heart attack in 2014.
The de-facto Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong is currently serving a jail sentence over a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.
