Small Business Support to Examine Income as Well, "Blocking Duplicate Support"

[Financial News] A legal basis will be established allowing the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to request data needed to formulate policies for and provide support to small business owners from the National Tax Service (NTS) and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL).
 The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 22nd that an amendment to the Framework Act on Small Business Owners, aimed at integrating and utilizing fragmented data on small business owners, was approved that day by the State Council of South Korea.
 Until now, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups had checked sales and the number of regular employees based on business operators, in accordance with the legal definition of small business owners, and had formulated and implemented policies using that information. As a result, multiple-business operators who ran several unmanned stores could receive support for each store. Side-business operators who held high-paying jobs while running Smart Stores as a secondary business were also included among those eligible for support. 
 There had also been widespread criticism that support programs for small business owners should consider not only sales but also expenses such as the cost of goods sold, selling expenses, and administrative expenses, as well as actual business income.
 Under the amendment, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups now has a legal basis to request the NTS and MOEL to provide information needed to formulate policies for small business owners and implement support programs. It will be able to obtain not only sales data previously provided by the NTS but also data related to income and expenses, including business and employment income, the cost of goods sold, and selling and administrative expenses.
 The data obtained may be entrusted to an affiliated agency of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups responsible for research and support programs for small business owners. Given the nature of the work involving tax information, the agency's executives and employees carrying out the entrusted duties will be deemed public officials under the Criminal Act and subject to the rules applicable to public officials. 
 Once the amendment takes effect, it is expected to help calculate the size of the self-employed population by taking into account whether individuals are multiple-business operators or side-business operators, as well as help identify micro-scale self-employed people.
 Lee Byeong-gwon, Second Vice Minister of SMEs and Startups, said, "We expect to resolve the duplicate support problem caused by business-operator-centered assistance and ensure that government funding reaches micro-scale small business owners in a more targeted and comprehensive manner."
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[email protected] Kim Hyun-cheol Reporter