South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) is introducing a sweeping initiative aimed at transforming how the country manages tax delinquencies. Rather than relying solely on punitive collection measures, the program seeks to combine real-time data analysis with a more supportive approach for taxpayers struggling with genuine financial hardship.
The newly formed “Tax Delinquency Management Team” will run for an initial three-year period and employ about 2,000 people nationwide. The team will include temporary call center staff and field investigators who will directly assess taxpayers’ financial conditions, with oversight from career civil servants. To fill these roles, the NTS plans to recruit career-interrupted women, young professionals, and retired public officials—an effort designed not only to improve tax compliance but also to create meaningful job opportunities across the country.
The government has allocated roughly USD 9.6 million to fund the program in the upcoming fiscal year. A three-week pilot phase has already begun, focusing on setting up the organizational structure and conducting preliminary field surveys of delinquent taxpayers. Any operational challenges discovered during this trial will be incorporated into official manuals before the full rollout.
This national initiative builds on earlier successes at the local level, notably in Gyeonggi Province and Seongnam City, where similar strategies improved both collection efficiency and taxpayer rehabilitation. At its core, the program represents a shift toward what officials are calling “welfare taxation,” a model that balances the state’s need to secure revenue with the social imperative of helping individuals who fall behind due to economic hardship.
“The National Tax Delinquency Management Team serves a dual role: it supports collection operations by assessing taxpayers’ financial situations while also assisting those whose arrears stem from livelihood difficulties,” said Ahn Deok-soo, Director of the NTS’s Collection and Legal Affairs Bureau. “The objective is not simply to chase down overdue taxes.”
Officials believe the program will not only raise recovery rates from high-value and habitual delinquents but also generate new employment opportunities, reflecting South Korea’s effort to modernize its tax administration while maintaining a safety net for vulnerable citizens.
