Korea Asset Management Corporation, or KAMCO, recorded about 92.94 billion won in losses over the past decade on company shares that had been accepted in place of inheritance or gift taxes. The assets are supposed to be managed and eventually sold so the proceeds can return to the national treasury. Data obtained through the National Assembly show 23 cases were treated as impairment losses between 2017 and August this year.
One of the clearest examples involved shares in SSCP, a former Kosdaq-listed materials supplier. The government had accepted 69.7 billion won worth of the company's shares as a tax payment, but KAMCO did not sell them before the company failed in 2012. The agency recovered only a small amount in dividends. The broader review found eight cases in which companies went bankrupt before the shares were ever put through an auction process.
The issue is less about stock-market timing than about how public assets are monitored once the government accepts them as tax payments. KAMCO has cited restrictions and the difficulty of selling below the original assessed value in some cases. The 93 billion won cumulative loss now gives lawmakers a basis to examine whether disposal rules, monitoring and intervention thresholds need to change before more tax-payment shares lose value.