Tax revenue up 15% in 2022

South Korea's tax revenue rose 51.9 trillion won ($42 billion) in 2022 from a year earlier on the back of an increased collection of corporate income taxes, coupled with revitalized consumption, the finance ministry said Monday.

The government collected 395.9 trillion won in taxes last year, up 15.1 percent from the 344.1 trillion won tallied in 2021, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

In 2020, the tax revenue fell by 7.9 trillion won due to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, before rebounding by 58.5 trillion won on-year in 2021.

The ministry attributed the rise to an increased collection of corporate income taxes, which shot up 47.1 percent, or 33.2 trillion won, to reach 103.6 trillion won.

The collection of income taxes also gathered ground as more people were employed on the back of eased pandemic regulations in 2022, advancing 12.8 percent on-year to 128.7 trillion won.

The number of employed people came to 28.08 million in 2022, up 816,000 from the previous year, separate data from the government showed earlier. It marked the largest number since 2000, when the nation reported an on-year increase of 882,000 jobs.

The collection of value-added taxes climbed 14.6 percent to 81.6 trillion on increased consumption, it added.

But the collection of taxes from stock transactions dipped 38.5 percent to 6.3 trillion won amid the bearish market. South Korea's main index crashed 25 percent in 2022. (Yonhap)