The National Tax Service (NTS) is known to have launched a tax probe into Lotte Chilsung Beverage by dispatching officials of the Investigation Bureau 4, which is in charge of non-regular tax audits.
According to related industry sources on Jan. 23, the NTS started an in-depth tax investigation by sending a large number of investigators to Lotte Chilsung Beverage's business place in Seocho-gu and Jamsil headquarters in Songpa-gu, Seoul.
It is the first time in two years that Lotte Chilsung Beverage has been investigated by the tax authorities since its regular tax investigation in March 2017.
Regarding the tax investigation, market watchers said that the regular tax audit on companies like the size of Lotte Chilsung Beverage takes place four to five years after the regular inspection usually, so if the investigation is conducted two years after the regular inspection, the special tax probe is likely to be conducted due to reports on tax evasion or unfair accounting.
Meanwhile, a Lotte Chilsung Beverage official said that the tax investigation team visited the company, but we did not know the exact reason.
