[Sejong = E-Daily Reporter Song Ju-Oh ] Hong Ra-hee, Honorary Director of the Leeum Museum of Art, is gifting Samsung Electronics shares worth 2.6 trillion won to her eldest son, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. The gift tax Chairman Lee is expected to pay is estimated to be around 1.5 trillion won. Just six months after fully paying his inheritance tax, Chairman Lee now faces another tax bill in the trillions. Attention is focused on whether he will raise the funds without selling his shares this time as well.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on the 14th, Chairman Lee filed a “Report on Transaction Plans for Specific Securities by Executives and Major Shareholders” the previous day. In the report, Chairman Lee stated that he had signed an agreement on the 12th to receive a gift of 11,158,000 shares of Samsung Electronics common stock from Honorary Director Hong. The scheduled date of the gift is the 12th of next month, and based on the closing price on the 13th (232,000 won), the shares are valued at approximately 2.59 trillion won. Once the gift is finalized, Chairman Lee’s stake will rise from 1.58% to 1.75%, while Honorary Director Hong’s stake will decrease from 0.99% to 0.82%.

A maximum tax rate of 50% applies to gifts with a taxable base exceeding 3 billion won. A 20% premium is added to the appraised value of shares held by major shareholders and others. Honorary Director Hong is subject to this premium because he is a related party of Samsung Life Insurance, the largest shareholder of Samsung Electronics. The assessed value reflecting this surcharge is approximately 3.1 trillion won. After subtracting the 3% tax credit for filing, the gift tax amounts to approximately 1.5 trillion won, resulting in an effective tax rate of around 58%. The final tax amount is determined based on the average closing price over a total of four months—two months before and two months after the date of the gift. If the stock price fluctuates by 10,000 won, the tax amount changes by approximately 65 billion won.

Chairman Lee must file his gift tax return by the end of February next year. He may apply for an installment payment plan, allowing him to pay the tax in six installments over a maximum of five years; in this case, each installment would be around 250 billion won.

In the past, Chairman Lee has covered inheritance tax liabilities using dividends and personal loans. The Samsung family paid the 12 trillion won in inheritance tax on the estate of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee in six installments starting in 2021, completing the payments in April of this year. Chairman Lee’s share amounted to 2.9 trillion won. While the three women—the mother and her two daughters—combined the sale of shares with stock-backed loans, Chairman Lee did not sell his stakes in core affiliates nor use them as collateral.

Chairman Lee is reported to receive annual dividends of 180 billion won from affiliate companies. Since this installment’s tax burden is smaller than the 480 billion won paid during the final installment of the inheritance tax, analysts suggest it is highly likely that she will once again cover the tax through dividends and loans.