Non-tax revenue that the South Korean government either failed to collect or gave up collecting totaled 38.5 trillion won ($26.9 billion) last year, the highest level in a decade.
Assessed non-tax revenue came to 301.9 trillion won last year, according to data submitted by the National Tax Service and other agencies to the office of Rep. Kim Sang-hoon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee, and to the National Assembly Budget Office. Of that amount, 263.4 trillion won was actually collected, while 36.1 trillion won remained unpaid and 2.4 trillion won was written off as uncollectible. The collection rate, or the share of assessed revenue actually received, stood at 87.2%, the lowest in the 10 years since 2016.
The unpaid amount rose 44% from a year earlier, climbing to 36.1 trillion won from 25.1 trillion won. Write-offs also increased to 2.4 trillion won from 1.4 trillion won. Together, uncollected and written-off amounts jumped 12 trillion won, to 38.5 trillion won last year from 26.5 trillion won in 2024. The unpaid amount is 2.6 times the 13.7 trillion won recorded in 2016.
Non-tax revenue refers to government income that does not come from taxes, such as administrative fines, surcharges, various levies and fees for the use of state property. The largest category of arrears was current transfer receipts, which include penalties for breach of contract, criminal fines, forfeitures and administrative fines levied mainly on those who violate legal obligations. Unpaid amounts in that category reached 21 trillion won last year, excluding amounts held in special government funds.
By agency, 1.1053 trillion won in criminal fines, forfeitures and administrative fines owed to the National Police Agency remained unpaid as of the end of last year, along with 692.9 billion won in late-payment charges owed to the Korea Customs Service and 437.6 billion won in fines, forfeitures and administrative fines owed to the Fair Trade Commission.
The collection rate for late-payment charges, the additional amounts imposed when taxes are not paid by the deadline, has also remained in the 1% range. The National Tax Service was due to collect about 15.7 trillion won in such charges last year but received only 176.5 billion won. It also gave up collecting 1.2474 trillion won of those charges, citing reasons including the expiration of the statute of limitations. This year, about 700 billion won had already been written off through July.
A National Tax Service official said most of the unpaid late-payment charges stem from long-overdue arrears that arose before the system was overhauled in 2020, making recovery less likely as time passes. "On top of that, even when arrears are collected, enforcement costs and national taxes must be covered first, and late-payment charges can be collected only from what is left," the official said. "That makes recovery even harder."
Against that backdrop, the National Tax Service launched a preparatory task force this year for the integrated collection of non-tax government revenue, which reviewed the circumstances of delinquent payers over three months from July to September and collected about 82.7 billion won. The task force is a temporary body set to operate through the end of this year, but it is expected to become a permanent organization once legislation on integrated collection is enacted.
"Public money that has not been collected now exceeds 38 trillion won and has grown by 12 trillion won in a single year, yet the government has effectively taken its hands off collection management," Kim said. "Failing to collect even fines and administrative penalties is not just a fiscal leak but a matter of confidence in law enforcement, so the causes of non-collection must be examined item by item and the collection system reviewed from the ground up."