"Ferry Sewol" Yoo Byung-eon's second son loses 1.5 billion gift tax invalidation lawsuit

The second son of the late former Semo Group Chairman Yoo Byung-eon, who was a real owner of Ferry Sewol, filed a lawsuit against the imposition of gift tax of 1.5 billion won, but lost.

The Seoul Administrative Court recently ruled against the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Yoo Hyuk-ki against the Gangnam Tax Office to invalidate the imposition of gift tax.

Yoo argued that the service of public notice was not legal, which the court found difficult to conclude that the authorities did not pay the minimum duty of care for service.

However, in a lawsuit filed by Yoo Sum-na, the eldest daughter, the tax office ruled that the act of imposing a gift tax of 80 million won in 2014 was invalid.

Considering that Sumna was arrested and detained in France at the time, the court judged that it was inappropriate for the authorities to immediately provide public service on the grounds of inability to deliver domestic addresses.

Earlier, tax authorities imposed 1.49 billion won and 80 million won in gift taxes on I1 shareholders Hyuk-ki and Sumna, respectively, after conducting a tax investigation after the 2014 Ferry Sewol disaster, and i1 Group holding company i1 Holdings bought two shares at a low price in 2008.