Samsung’s founding family has completed payment of a record inheritance tax bill in South Korea, ending a closely watched five-year process that had raised questions about control of the country’s most powerful corporate group.
Samsung said the Lee family has now paid 12 trillion won in tax linked to the death of former chairman Lee Kun-hee in October 2020. It is the largest inheritance tax settlement ever recorded in South Korea.
The amount was paid in six instalments by chairman Lee Jae-yong and other family members, including his mother Hong Ra-hee, and sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun.
Lee Kun-hee left behind an estate worth about 26 trillion won, consisting of company shares, property, and an extensive art collection. Some of those works, including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, were later donated to the National Museum of Korea, as well as other cultural institutions.
At the time, the family said that “paying taxes is a natural duty of citizens.”
Samsung confirmed on Sunday that the final payment had been made, and said the total tax bill was about one and a half times South Korea’s entire inheritance tax revenue for 2024. The country’s top inheritance tax rate is 50%, which is among the highest in the world.
The scale of the settlement was closely watched by investors because of its possible impact on the Lee family’s hold over Samsung. There had been concern that the burden might force the family to sell shares and weaken its influence in the group, but that has not happened.
Samsung is South Korea’s largest chaebol, a family-controlled conglomerate with interests in electronics, semiconductors, heavy industry, construction, and financial services. It is also a major global technology company, making smartphones, televisions, and computer chips.
The Lee family’s combined wealth is now estimated at more than US$45 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their fortune has more than doubled over the past year, helped by rising demand for chips used in artificial intelligence, which has lifted the value of Samsung Electronics.
Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul, the grandfather of Lee Jae-yong, who now leads the company.