Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash.
Korean YouTubers are really rich. So rich that even a six-year-old Korean YouTuber managed to buy a home worth $8 million.But does anyone actually know how YouTubers and influencers are taxed? Apparently, it’s even hard for the government to know, since YouTube pays video creators directly. It’s not impossible though, as proven by a recent case in Korea.On Thursday, October 10, the Korean government fined seven YouTubers a total of 1 billion won ($842,000) for tax evasion, The Korea Times reports. According to a lawmaker, they filed false tax returns to avoid paying a combined total of 4.5 billion won ($3.7 billion) in taxes.They did this by underreporting earnings from sponsors and endorsements, bringing their total income down. The Korea Communications Agency said four Korean YouTubers earned over 1 billion won ($842,000) from the platform last year, though it wasn’t stated if they were the ones evading taxes.The allegations come after a tax-audit investigation by the National Tax Service (NTS) of successful YouTubers was submitted to Rep. Kim Chung-woo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. Kim disclosed the findings earlier this week. The investigations led to one YouTuber being caught last year, and the other six this year.It is not currently known who the YouTubers are.The discovery has led to heightened regulations. Starting next year, new practices by the NTS will allow it to know the incomes of one-person online broadcasters and YouTubers. However, Kim still thinks “there are still too many loopholes.""We need to strengthen measures to reduce blind areas," he said. Another official said that the government has “developed a systematic method of managing high-earning YouTubers and will continue to investigate more individuals.”This is the first time the Korean government disclosed the incomes of YouTubers.According to Google Korea, 674 Korean YouTube channels had at least 100,000 subscribers last year. This year, that number has risen to 1,275.*1 USD=1,189.20 South Korean wonFind Edoardo on Twitter and Instagram.
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