Google Korea finally wins tax dispute against Korean tax office

The Supreme Court of South Korea has upheld a lower court's decision in favor of Google Korea, dismissing an appeal from the country's tax authority. The dispute centered around a corporate tax cancellation case involving approximately 154 billion won ($115.3 million). The tax office had initially imposed corporate and local income taxes on Google Korea in 2020, arguing that the company's transfer of part of its income to Google Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, was subject to taxation.

Google Korea contested this, asserting that the payments constituted business income for Google Asia Pacific and were therefore not taxable in Korea. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of Google Korea, finding that the payments were indeed business income for the Singapore-based company and not subject to Korean taxation.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.