Samsung’s Lee family will donate 23,000 rare artworks to help pay US$10.8 billion inheritance tax

The tax bill would be the most ever in South Korea and more than triple the country’s total estate tax revenue last year

Lee, who died in October, transformed Samsung from a small television maker into a global giant in semiconductors and consumer electronics

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Former Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee died last year. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:19am, 28 Apr 2021Updated: 6:50pm, 28 Apr 2021

The heirs to South Korea’s Samsung group announced their plans to pay more than US$10 billion in death duties on Wednesday – one of the world’s biggest-ever inheritance tax settlements – and donate an art trove including works by Monet and Picasso.

Lee Kun-Hee, the late Samsung Electronics chairman, was the country’s richest man when he died last October at age 78 after being hospitalised for years, leaving an estimated 22 trillion won (US$19.6 billion) in assets.

South Korea has stringent inheritance tax laws and high rates, resulting in a hefty bill for the family, including Samsung Electronics vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is currently in jail for bribery, embezzlement and other offences.

Lee’s family “expects to pay more than 12 trillion won in taxes related to inheritance, which is more than half of the value of the late Chairman’s total estate”, Samsung said in a statement.

“The inheritance tax payment is one of the largest ever in Korea and globally,” it added, saying the Lee family will pay it off in six instalments starting this month.

The assets include shareholdings in Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life and Samsung C&T, as well as real estate, according to the statement.

The late chairman also left a trove of antiques and artworks reportedly worth 2 to 3 trillion won.

Lee Jae-yong was jailed over a 2016 corruption scandal. Photo: AFP

Samsung’s Lee family will donate 23,000 rare artworks to help pay US$10.8 billion inheritance tax

The tax bill would be the most ever in South Korea and more than triple the country’s total estate tax revenue last year Lee, who died in October, transformed Samsung from a small television maker into a global giant in semiconductors and consumer electronics

The tax bill would be the most ever in South Korea and more than triple the country’s total estate tax revenue last year

Lee, who died in October, transformed Samsung from a small television maker into a global giant in semiconductors and consumer electronics