Samsung’s Lee family paid a record tax of 12 trillion won or about 8 billion dollars on the property left by former chairman Lee Kun-hee who died in 2020.
Current leader Lee Jae-yong paid it with his mother and sisters covering nearly half of the 26 trillion won property with company shares, land and buildings, and gifts of famous art by Picasso and Dalí to South Korean museums.
The family said paying taxes is a normal duty for citizens and although the amount is about 1.5 times all of South Korea’s 2024 inheritance tax money they still control the Samsung group with a total worth over 45 billion dollars.