이 누리집은 대한민국 공식 전자정부 누리집입니다.
Biz News Korea(Eng)
Tax-haven funds surge in South Korean stocks raise questions on motives
- Collected
- 2017.02.16
- Distributed
- 2017.02.20
- Source
- Go Direct
The financial watchdog is closely watching the spike - 150 percent from 3.7 trillion won in 2008 - in local stock investment from the islanders who outnumbered Chinese at 8.71 trillion won, suspecting questionable motives as many may not be legal residents of the British territory famous for shell companies and tax rates of zero or ultra-low rates and confidentiality to its offshore investing.
For instance, a Korean individual or enterprise could create a shell company in tax-haven countries and feign as an offshore investor to use slush funds to invest in a stock in Korea to discreetly increase stake-holding in own company or another.
The number of individual and institutional investors from the Cayman Islands totaled 3,305, coming in the third place after 14,383 Americans and 3,818 Japanese, according to the financial authority.
Investors from Switzerland, another paradise for tax cheaters and secretive accounts, owned 7.24 trillion won worth local shares. The amount of stock holding by investors from Hong Kong, a hotbed for shell companies, reached 4.05 trillion won. The number of investors from the Virgin Islands increased sharply from 79 as of end-2015 to 116 last year, but the value was relatively small, the FSS said.
By Park Yun-gu
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]