Yaongyi has won her appeal in a tax dispute, resulting in the cancellation of a tax bill amounting to several million KRW.
Yaongyi (real name Kim Na Young), the renowned webtoon artist behind ‘True Beauty,’ has successfully challenged the National Tax Service’s value-added tax assessment, winning her case at the Tax Tribunal.
Years after her controversial tax evasion allegations first surfaced, the decision has now been overturned, and she will receive a refund of the multi-billion KRW in taxes that had previously been imposed.
According to Weekly Chosun, the Tax Tribunal ruled in June that the value-added tax assessment issued by the National Tax Service on Yaongyi’s corporation should be canceled. As a result, all taxes imposed from the second half of 2018 to the first half of 2022 have been invalidated.
The National Tax Service had argued that Yaongyi's method of providing electronic files of ‘True Beauty’ to Naver Webtoon did not qualify for VAT exemption for electronic publications, asserting instead that it should be treated as a service permitting the use of copyright—and therefore taxable.
However, the Tax Tribunal concluded that the webtoon qualified as a tax-exempt publication under guidelines from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, noting that it was issued by a corporation officially registered as a publishing business and had been assigned identifiers such as ISBN and ISSN through Naver Webtoon.
Thus, the taxation grounds presented by the National Tax Service were not upheld.
During last year’s tax investigation, Yaongyi acknowledged that some processing errors occurred due to inexperience but maintained that there was no intentional attempt at tax evasion. She stated, “The tax investigation conducted in 2022 confirmed that there were no suspicions of personal use of the corporate card or vehicle.”
She continued, “I already paid the taxes imposed for the portions I mistakenly processed due to lack of attention.” Meanwhile, her husband, fellow webtoon artist Jeon Seon Wook, also defended her, explaining that she was “not someone who would intentionally seek personal gain.”
Following the controversy, Yaongyi paused her social media activity, later updating fans in January of last year that she was working on a new series, and eventually resuming her activities in July of this year.
After the issue was resolved, a fan sent her a message saying, “I’m glad the unfair situation has been resolved,” to which she replied, “The biggest responsibility lies in my own lack of knowledge. I’ll listen to expert advice more and work harder going forward.”
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