The family of Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, revealed that they will pay more than 12 trillion won (approximately $10.8 billion) in inheritance taxes for the estate and donate the vast private art collection to state curators.
According to the report from Reuters, the tax won’t be paid in a single instance. The family said that they are planning to pay the tax bill over a period of five years in a total of six installments, starting this month.
The family has also announced that it will donate 1 trillion won to improve public healthcare in the country, including 500 billion won to build South Korea’s first specialist hospital for infectious diseases.
For those who are unaware, Lee died on 25th October, leaving an estate valued at around 26 trillion won. He is credited with transforming Samsung into one of the world’s largest companies and a leader in smartphones as well as the memory chip market.
Everyone’s eyes were on the handling of the inheritance tax bill by the Lee family which is the largest-ever in Korea and globally. There’s a possibility of dilution of the family’s controlling stake in Samsung depending on how it is handled.
People were calling for Lee’s $1.76 billion art collection to stay in South Korea as reports suggested that the family planned to make a large donation to make reparations for Lee’s conviction on tax evasion and embezzlement charges over a decade ago.
Interestingly, the family has revealed how the stake in Samsung is divided. Now, investors will need to wait for regulatory filings to discover changes in shareholdings by Lee’s son and Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee or other family members.
Last week, it was reported that the family had been discussing using shares in affiliated companies as collateral for personal loans to pay part of the tax bill to avoid the sale of their Samsung holdings.
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