|
June 06, 2008
|
|
| Shares of Hana Finance Holdings rose 7.5 percent yesterday, their largest leap this year, after the National Tax Service ruled that the financial group’s banking unit will not be required to pay 1.7 trillion won ($1.7 billion) in penalty taxes. Hana share prices closed up 3,150 won at 45,250 won. The NTS slapped the taxes on Hana Bank in March for corporate income tax evasion when the bank merged with the now-defunct Seoul Bank. After performing an NTS-requested investigation, the Finance Ministry announced in February that the merger between Hana and Seoul involved illegal tax evasion, and the NTS then made the final ruling. Hana appealed and the NTS ruled in its favor. In 2002, Hana Bank bought Seoul Bank from the government for 1.15 trillion won. The government spent 4.6 trillion won to bail out Seoul Bank in the aftermath of the financial meltdown that hit the nation in 1997. Following the tax payment ruling, Hana Bank appealed to the agency, arguing that the merger was not intended to evade taxes. “We were notified by the tax agency that the tax reduction we got in the process of the merger was appropriate,” Hana said yesterday in a regulatory filing. The tax agency will return the 198.3 billion won Hana paid toward the penalty late last month. The 1.7 trillion won penalty tax would have exceeded the lender’s 2007 net profit of 1.03 trillion won. “The decision will help dispel business uncertainty surrounding the taxation,” Kim Jung-tai, president of the lender, said in a statement. By Seo Ji-eun Staff Reporter [spring@joongang.co.kr] |
|
