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Samsung’s founding family has completed a record-breaking inheritance tax payment worth 12 trillion won, around $8 billion – almost 50% of the wealth that was passed on to them.
The payments were made by members of the Lee family, who control Samsung, following the death of former chairman Lee Kun-hee in 2020.
The tax bill was tied to Lee Kun-hee’s estate, valued at around 26 trillion won and included company shares, property, and a major art collection. South Korea’s inheritance tax rate can reach as high as 50%, which is among the highest anywhere in the world.
At the time the payments began, the family said that “paying taxes is a natural duty of citizens,” the BBC reports.
Record-breaking tax paid by Samsung family
Samsung is South Korea’s largest “chaebol” – the word for a large family-owned business. The total amount they have paid is equivalent to about 1.5 times the country’s entire inheritance tax revenue in 2024.
Lee Jae-yong, who now leads Samsung, completed the payments alongside his mother Hong Ra-hee and sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun. The family remains among the wealthiest in Asia, with a combined net worth exceeding $45 billion.
Samsung’s valuation has surged in recent years, driven in part by demand for semiconductor chips, which boosted its stock price.
Part of Lee Kun-hee’s estate was also donated, including works by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, which were handed to national museums and cultural institutions in South Korea.
