Inheritance Tax Filing

Filing is an obligation, not a choice

Korean inheritance tax is due within six months from the end of the month in which the decedent died. For an heir residing outside Korea, the deadline extends to nine months.

Some families skip the filing because they believe the estate falls below the deduction threshold. That judgment is risky. Cash and financial assets leave no title record, so a filed return is often the only document showing how the estate was divided — useful later for banks, registries, and disputes between heirs.

If you do not file, a penalty of 20% of the tax due applies (40% where the omission is deemed fraudulent), plus late-payment interest of 0.025% per day.

When you should have the estate reviewed

The estate is near or above KRW 1 billion

Where a surviving spouse exists, deductions commonly bring the taxable threshold to around KRW 1 billion; without a spouse, around KRW 500 million. These are rules of thumb, not fixed limits — the actual figure depends on the composition of the estate and the number of heirs.

There were gifts within the last ten years

Property gifted to an heir within ten years before death is added back to the taxable estate. Calculating tax on the date-of-death assets alone will produce a materially wrong return. Please tell us about past transfers, even informal ones between family members.

You may sell inherited real estate later

Establishing the market value at the date of death fixes your acquisition cost for a future sale. A higher acquisition cost means a smaller capital gain and lower capital gains tax when you eventually dispose of the property. The inheritance return therefore affects tax you will pay years later.

What we do

1. Document guidance and consultation. We tell you which certificates to obtain and where. We review the estate composition, the number of heirs, and any prior gifts before advising. Everything discussed is kept confidential.

2. Review and electronic filing. We work through family relationships, asset categories, and each available deduction, then file electronically through Hometax. You receive the return and supporting schedules.

3. A bound record of the filing. After filing we provide a printed booklet containing the return and receipt, the parties’ details, the asset valuation schedule, the deduction schedules for debts, public charges and funeral costs, and other deduction schedules.

4. Follow-up. If you later dispose of inherited assets and need a further filing, we can continue from the same records.

Tax audits are a separate engagement

Our inheritance filing fee is set on the basis that no tax audit follows. If the National Tax Service opens an audit after filing, representation is treated as separate work and the scope and fee are agreed separately.

What we do at the filing stage is reduce the chance of that happening — we document the basis for each valuation and deduction, so that a request for explanation can be answered from the file.

Before your consultation

Please have ready, as far as you can:

• The date of death
• A rough list of assets — real estate, deposits, securities
• The heirs (whether there is a surviving spouse, and the number of children)
• Any gifts made in the last ten years
• Debts and funeral expenses

Exact figures are not required at this stage. We will tell you what to obtain and where.

For non-Korean clients

We can conduct consultations in English by email or video call. Documents from Korean institutions are in Korean; we translate the parts that matter for your decision and explain the filing in English. Certified translation of foreign documents for submission is arranged separately when required.