Lee calls inheritance tax claims ‘fake news’... Opposition asks, “Was it a fake campaign pledge?”

According to Financial News, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) recently issued a press release claiming that a surge in wealthy individuals were leaving Korea because of the burden of the inheritance tax. President Lee Jae-myung denounced the release as “deliberately fabricated fake news.” In response, the People Power Party on the 9th accused him of “hypocritical double standards” and pressed him to honor his presidential campaign pledge to reform the inheritance tax.
At the supreme council meeting at the National Assembly that day, People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk said, “President Lee flew into a rage, calling it deliberately fabricated fake news, and even after KCCI immediately apologized, he put ministers out front and launched a ferocious attack as if to crush them.” He went on, “During the last South Korean presidential election, President Lee himself pledged to reform the inheritance tax, but he has effectively shelved it until now. Was that pledge fake as well?”
Earlier, in a press release titled “Analysis of Inheritance Tax Revenue Outlook and the Effects of Diversifying Payment Methods,” KCCI stated that the number of wealthy individuals who had left Korea due to the inheritance tax burden had surged to 2,400. As the basis for the figure of 2,400, it cited a report by UK immigration consultancy Henley & Partners, but critics pointed out that the survey criteria and methodology were not clearly specified.
Jang continued, “The person who spread fake news about the ROKS Cheonan allegedly colliding with a submarine, and who has incited the public with countless pieces of fake news about THAAD electromagnetic waves and Fukushima contaminated water, is none other than President Lee Jae-myung.” He added, “He has put out so much fake news and reversed himself so many times that people even joke that ‘Lee Jae-myung’s worst enemy is Lee Jae-myung from yesterday.’”
He then asked, “After he has shaken the entire country with fake news, is a single misquoted statistic really grounds for such fury?” He remarked, “Even if KCCI’s figures were wrong, the problems caused by an excessively high inheritance tax have been raised for a long time.”
“When someone points at the moon, you should look at the moon, not the finger,” Jang said. “Before flying into a rage and shouting ‘fake news,’ he should first reflect on his own past and focus on the core of the problem. That is the proper attitude of a civilized person.”
Floor leader Song Eon-seok strongly criticized Lim Gwang-hyun, Commissioner of the National Tax Service, for posting on a social networking service (SNS) that “the annual average number of people with assets of 1 billion won or more who emigrated overseas is 139,” which Lim said was a fact-check of KCCI’s press release. Song argued that this constituted a violation of the Framework Act on National Taxes.
“Even if it is true that a private policy report has limitations because it is not an official document, using state power to intimidate people is a grave infringement of individual basic rights,” Song said. “On SNS—not in an official National Tax Service statistical release or a policy briefing—he accessed taxpayers’ and tax-related information without authorization and then disclosed the figures he obtained to the entire world,” Song stressed, calling it unlawful.
Song added, “This appears to constitute a violation of the duty of confidentiality stipulated in Article 82-13 of the Framework Act on National Taxes.” He insisted, “There must be an immediate explanation for Commissioner Lim’s illegal and inappropriate conduct, and he must be held strictly accountable under the law.”
haeram@fnnews.com Lee Hae-ram Reporter