The NTS (National Tax Service) recently initiated a thorough tax investigation over Hashed – a venue for venture capital and blockchain – although the company’s CEO has refuted the allegations for being involved in the collection of slush fund or else the evasion of tax, as per the reports of local media. It was confirmed by Hashed to have had a cooperation with the Seoul Regional Tax Office’ 4th Bureau of Investigation.
The agents of the bureau reportedly gathered tax accounting documents out of the main office of Hashed situated in Seoul during November’s early phase. Hashed CEO – Kim Seo-Joon – recently informed native media that each crypto investment was taken from the independent fund of the company’s co-founders because the local regulations prohibit collaborations for the crypto investments.
That is why, as Kim pointed out, it was not obligatory for Hashed to recompense taxes for being a corporation, which would dismiss any allegations for the involvement of the firm in tax evasion or slush funds. The latest South Korean tax being implemented on the personal digital asset profits has not even now taken effect, after a delay in its implementation date to 2023’s start – which was previously the start of 2022.
It was clarified by Kim that the venue is not an organization to invest in cryptocurrency, instead, it is a research institution to review projects at the time of taking individual capital for conducting investments. The 4th Bureau of Investigation under South Korea performs sporadic investigation of the probable tax evasion via intentional illegitimate operations including fraud.
Nonetheless, as per the reports of local media, it is unlikely that the platform will be given into criminal investigations’ hands. The companies of virtual assets have not been capable of controlling the assets adequately due to the ambiguousness existing in the accounting standards specified for cryptocurrencies. Many other crypto and blockchain companies have been investigated by the NTS during this year such as HN Group, Korea Digital Exchange (the HDCA token’s issuer), Ground X (the blockchain subsidiary of Kakao), and Terra.
An official from the industry states that by investigating such blockchain companies, some methods are being figured out by the NTS to implement taxation over the digital assets and regulate the cryptocurrency within the country. Hashed has formerly contributed to the ICOs (initial coin offerings) of the projects of blockchain that afterward turned out to be considered successful, like LUNA of Terra, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Klaytn.
