Lee Kun-hee, the patriarch and long-time head of SamsungElectonics Company, died last year. He had suffered a heart attack in 2014.
The tax bill in the inheritance process is estimated around$11 billion and the transfer of assets will take place over several years.
Further, about 23,000 works of art will be donated.
The maximum time allowed for the payment of the taxes isfive years under the South Korean law. This must be done in no more than six installmentsand during that time the company’s assets must be pledged as collateral.
The family claimed, “It is our civic duty and responsibilityto pay all taxes.”
The succession, however, is not smooth. Lee’s son Jay Y.Lee, has been accused of illegal behaviour in attempts to control the Samsungempire.
Jay is currently in prison because his first case ofcorruption found him guilty. This was a scandal regarding bribery charges whichled to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye in 2017.
When Jay’s father died, he left behind about $21 billion empirespread over four Samsung units. These assets included a 4.2% holding in theelectronics arm, and an art collection worth 3 trillion won, and some realestate.
It must be noted that the inheritance tax in South Korea isone of the highest in the world. 50% is what heirs have to pay when the valueexceeds 3 billion won.
Further, when shares are passed down from the largestshareholder another 20% is charged.
In good news for the nation’s fund, the tax to be collectedfrom this inheritance is about three to four times the government’s totalestate-tax revenue last year.
The Samsung family are also donating tens of thousands ofart pieces. Of these art pieces, the government will take 60 which it deems asnational treasures or treasures. These 60 will go to the National Museum ofKorea. Further, artwork from artists like Marc Chagall, Claude Monet and PabloPicasso will be given to the National Museum of Modern Contemporary Art.
The motivation for the heirs could be the legal fact thathad they wanted to keep these art pieces with themselves, they would have topay inheritance tax on these too.
Not only these, but the family will, over a period of tenyears, also donate 700 billion won to fight infectious diseases and another 300billion won to help children with cancer and rare illnesses.
It has often been noted that billionaires who have hadclashes with law often give away large sums of cash or assets towards publicinterests.
The family has not yet announced how they plan to split theassets of the late patriarch.
The heirs had applied earlier this week to change thelargest shareholder of Samsung Life Insurance Company.
Talking about Jay Y. Lee, the only son of Kun-hee, he hasless than 1% of Samsung Electronics but at 17% of Samsung C&T Corporation,he is the largest stake holder of the same.
Thus, his cloud over the tech juggernaut seems to ensure hisascension as the chairman of Samsung Electronics. However his trips to prisonare jeopardising that at the moment.