It has been officially confirmed that the inheritance tax owed by the bereaved families of the late Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee is more than 12 trillion won ($10.8 billion). The bereaved families have decided to donate 1 trillion won ($0.9 billion) from their inherited assets for medical contributions.
They will donate 1 trillion won to establish a hospital specializing in infectious diseases and support children with childhood cancer and rare diseases.
As many as 23,000 artworks, dubbed the "Lee Kun-hee Collection," will be donated to national art galleries.
The inheritance tax paid by the bereaved family is more than 12 trillion won, the highest ever. The business community estimated that about 60% of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee's assets are returned to society through taxes and donations.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the late Lee’s wife Hong Ra-hee, Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and Samsung Welfare Foundation Chairman Lee Seo-hyun unveiled the contents of the social return on April 28.
Chairman Lee Kun-hee passed away on October 25 last year and the 30th of this month is the deadline for the bereaved families to pay inheritance tax returns.
Samsung Electronics, which distributed a press release on behalf of the bereaved, said, "We decided to pay the inheritance tax and donate art works in line with the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee's wish to contribute to the national economic development and enhance the health and quality of life of mankind.
"The inheritance tax payment and social return plan have not been suddenly decided, but they inherit the spirit of Chairman Lee," it explained.
The late Chairman Lee Kun-hee previously said during the special prosecutor's investigation into Samsung's slush fund in 2008, "I will pay fines and missing taxes among borrowed-name assets and use the remaining amount for beneficial work," which is about 1 trillion won.
The money will be returned to society at the will of the bereaved families 13 years after the late Chairman Lee’s promise.
The bereaved families decided to donate 700 billion won to build infrastructure to overcome infectious diseases, considering the fact that the world is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the total, 500 billion won will be used to build the "Central Infection Disease Hospital," Korea's first infectious disease-specialized hospital.
