South Korean actress Song Hye-kyo on Tuesday apologized for committing tax evasion, stating in a news release that she “deeply regrets the mishandling of her tax affairs due to her ignorance.”
Song said that she had not been aware that her accountant had underreported her income taxes until the tax authority told her in 2012 that it could not acknowledge them due to the lack of documents on tax-deductible expenses.
Through her accountant, the actress reported 5.5 billion won ($5.4 million), or 92.3 percent, of 5.95 billion won as tax deductible expenses without presenting the related expense documents when she filed her income taxes for three years, from 2009-2011.
Seoul Tax Service calculated that the three years of omitted income tax totaled 2.56 billion won — 785 million won in 2009, 818 million won in 2010 and 954 million won in 2011.
Song later paid all the omitted taxes.
By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)
