The National Tax Service (NTS) has launched a tax investigation into GS Engineering & Construction (GS E&C) to find out whether or not the construction company was involved in corruption and tax evasion.
GS E&C, the fifth largest construction company in Korea, declared the "clean GS" campaign in the past, saying that it would not be involved in corruption and illegal charges in the Gangnam district reconstruction market..
The construction industry believes that GS E&C may have been able to avoid taxes in the process of acquiring and accounting for reconstruction projects. Related to this, the NTS is launching a series of tax audits for large and medium-sized construction companies, and the GS E&C case seems to be part of this investigation.
According to related authorities and construction industries on Feb. 26, the NTS dispatched employees of the investigation bureau No. 1 of the Seoul Regional Tax Service to GS E&C headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul in the middle of February to conduct a tax investigation.
It appears that the investigation seems to be a regular tax probe, considering the fact that no agents from the investigation bureau No. 4, which carries out special checks on the creation of slush funds and tax evasion, have been put into the investigation.
Under the judgment that there may be large amount of tax evasion due to irregular accounting in the process of receiving reconstruction projects, however, the NTS is expected to focus on finding out the difference between tax accounting and corporate accounting and possible corruption of reconstruction projects.
