Art and empire is thriving as Lee’s Samsung family faces a $ 12bn tax bill

Jean-Michel Basquiat was inspired by black, African-style punches and racism when he released “Untitled (Black Photo)” in 1982, one of the most innovative works of art.

The same year, Lee Kun-hee led Samsung’s top engineers to learn how to transfer millions of trans-trans-metal-oxide-semiconductors to a single computer, a new way to help advance state-of-the-art technology.

While the American artist and Korean artist, who died in October 2020, were different in the world, they are inextricably linked. The impressive Basquiat fabric and some of the land plots Lee’s wife and three children are considering separation as they devise plans to pay an inheritance tax of up to $ 12bn.

The law, which is based on South Korea’s 60% tax, which is the largest in the OECD, reflects the growing spread between the country’s citizens and the general public.

“They have benefited the people by becoming richer,” said Chang Sung-ja, a 56-year-old in the southern city of Suncheon who, along with her husband, drove people home after drinking. “People like us can’t even imagine the amount of wealth they have.”

Lee, the son of Samsung’s founder and head of South Korea’s largest company, had long hailed him as a pilot whose achievements helped to eradicate the world’s poorest ashes and generate electricity.

But for many South Koreans today, the wealth of the Lees – and others chaebol Families that control local businesses and have political power – are divided. The lives of the elite of chance and extravagance are very different from the ongoing struggle of many workers who are struggling to make ends meet.

Even though the tax deadline is approaching, neither the family nor Samsung has commented on the taxes – in addition to secretly claiming that the revenues received will be fully and timely. Arrested in January TERMS OF USE, the last child to lead Samsung, in a bribery lawsuit over his entry has disrupted family ties.

The main thing is that the payments will spread for five years under the harsh conditions that have also created the family’s fortune, according to experts and commentators.

Park Ju-geun, chief executive of Score, the research company, said the initial payments should be paid through a major bank account using its shareholding in Samsung as collateral.

As the ancestral wealth is tied to the website in Samsung’s subsidiaries, various subscribers are also expected to donate more to help reimburse the family.

But at the end of five years, the couple still has to get rid of some of the products that have been sold in Samsung companies, a hope that poses a risk that its metal pull could be released.

The sale or donation of art galleries and remodeling the family’s needs through charities will also help negotiate, according to Park and other people who know this. The collection, about 13,000 pieces worth $ 2.7bn, includes works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko, as well as works by Korean artists So So-keun and Lee Jung-seob.

Chung Joon-mo, director of the country’s state-of-the-art museum and former curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, is helping to legalize the collection if the paintings are donated to the state museum.

“They are already in talks with the museum and are about to make a decision,” Chung said, adding that the funding would be received due to “limited purchasing power costs by government agencies”.

Others, however, criticize the couple for using sophisticated methods to reduce their taxes. “Why don’t they just pay for it? They have a lot of money, “said Im Han-kyu, 55.” This will not really help their lives because money makes money. “

Inheritance agencies vary around the world but much higher prices in South Korea are available higher the end of global scales.

Lee’s family tax cuts are part of a larger transition as succession wars threaten to turn markets in other parts of Asia.

For example, in Japan, corporate change in management and control is driving a private financial interest which have earned the largest amount of money in the world to sell in Tokyo.

Japan is not only the world’s largest economy but also has entrepreneurs who come in the late seventy-five years and seek out the exit of businesses that have been building for years.

The reputation of the companies and their executives is crucial to this work, which financial institutions believe will eventually be replicated in Asia as various economic powers, such as South Korea, gain population growth in Japan.

Back in Seoul, however, Samsung still has a solid foundation of support. People, from business leaders to monks, have recently called on Lee Jae-yong to be released from prison through a presidential pardon. The family hopes that the gift of artists ’work like Basquiat will remind people of his public contributions and accept cement for Lee’s third generation of Lee’s leadership.

Extras quoted by Emma Agyemang in Copenhagen