Category: Korea-Business

For people who live in Korea and are making money from Youtube channel monetization, then yes they should be paying their taxes.  Anyone want to make a bet that every conservative with a Youtube channel will be audited to make sure they are paying taxes?:

Korean tax authorities are vowing to crack down on high-earning YouTubers to ensure that they are paying their taxes in full.

Last month, National Tax Service (NTS) Commissioner Han Sung-hee promised to take measures to “prevent tax evasion” by well-paid YouTubers during the National Assembly’s annual questioning session.

Han said that while the NTS had only advised 513 YouTubers to pay income taxes in the past, it was open to launching investigations into those who have not voluntarily declared taxes.

Starting in October, the tax authorities have been looking into YouTubers’ tax returns and verifying their authenticity. The NTS plans to finish verifications by the end of the year and launch investigations into suspicious individuals from next year.

“We are now collecting information on YouTubers who are suspected of not paying taxes,” said one tax official who requested anonymity. “We receive records on individuals who earn over $10,000 in foreign currency per year from the Bank of Korea.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This news is about as surprising as North Korea maintaining missile bases:

Small and mid-sized companies are laying off workers ahead of another 10.9-percent hike in the minimum wage in January to stay afloat.

According to the Korea Employment Information Service, a total of 497,314 workers were laid off by small and mid-sized companies and applied for unemployment support in the third quarter of this year, up a whopping 37,710 compared to the same period of 2017.

This was the biggest rate of increase for the third quarter since the government started tallying statistics in 2010. Over the same period, 110,000 workers were laid off by big businesses, up 14 percent. That means the government has handed out W5.5 trillion in unemployment support in the first 10 months of this year, already surpassing last year’s total of W5.02 trillion (US$1=W1,130).  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

More bad press for BMW in South Korea:

BMW cars are still bursting into flames in Korea as a huge recall here continues after a spate of vehicle fires over the summer crippled the German automaker.

A BMW X5 30d SUV caught fire on Tuesday evening in Seoul while it was being driven. The 2007 version of the model is powered by diesel and is not included in the recall list. The fire did not cause any injuries.

Just a day earlier, a gasoline-powered 3-Series model that wasn’t included in the latest recall list caught fire in Yongin, Gyeonggi.

The driver pulled over after realizing that the steering wheel was not operating properly. The engine quickly caught fire once the car had stopped, the driver told a local fire station. No injuries were reported.

“We are currently looking into the case to figure out the reason behind the fire,” a spokesperson for BMW Korea said Tuesday.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

It looks like the Moon administration better hurry up and fire everyone else at Statistics Korea because the job numbers just continue to be dismal:

Anchor: New jobs figures released Wednesday show a bleak situation. Unemployment reached its highest point last month since the Asian financial crisis nearly 20 years ago.
Our Park Jong-hong has this report.

Report: The latest figures show South Korea’s jobless rate rose slightly in August to four percent due to a fall in employment in the retail and manufacturing sectors.

Young adults aged 15 to 29 who were out of a job last month stood at ten percent, up six-tenths of a percentage point from the previous year and the highest since 1999.

The number of employed went up by a mere three-thousand compared to August last year to 26-point-nine million.

This increase in jobs last month is the smallest since January 2010, when ten-thousand jobs were cut.

For the second month in a row, the number of newly added jobs has stayed below ten-thousand per month.

An official at Statistics Korea, which compiled the report, said one main reason behind the dismal figures is the struggling business at automakers and shipbuilders which is spilling over to related sectors like retail.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

If you own a BMW you better get it checked out soon:

Two more BMW diesel cars caught fire Thursday morning, less than an hour apart, as Korea’s Transport Ministry mulls banning the fire-prone BMW vehicles from Korean roads.

This makes 36 cases of BMWs bursting into flames in Korea this year, eight in the last nine days.

As some of the vehicles that caught fire in recent weeks are not even included in BMW’s official recall list, industry analysts are raising new doubts about the company’s description of the cause of the fires.

On Thursday, a 730Ld model caught fire on the Namhae Expressway in South Gyeongsang.

The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes, according to the local fire station.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but BMW is saying the fires are being caused by an exhaust gas recirculation issue.

It looks like reality has set in for the Moon administration’s attempt to raise the minimum wage even further in South Korea:

President Moon Jae-in admitted Monday he won’t fulfill his campaign pledge to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won ($8.86) by 2020, after anguished protests about rising labor costs from small business owners and concerns voiced by at least one top member of his administration.

“As a result of the decision by the Minimum Wage Commission, it became difficult to achieve the target of raising the minimum wage to 10,000 won by 2020,” Moon said during a meeting with his senior secretaries at the Blue House on Monday. “I offer my apologies for being unable to keep my pledge.”

The president added that he respects the decision by the commission to keep next year’s minimum wage hike lower than expected and said the government will do its best to realize a 10,000 won minimum wage as early as possible.

Moon’s five-year term ends in May 2022. Moon expressed his appreciation to the commission for raising next year’s minimum wage by more than 10 percent.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

I think these mom and pop stores have a valid complaint because big businesses can respond to the wage increase by cutting jobs or hours and then automating where necessary.  Mom and pop stores may not have the capital available to automate like a bigger business:

Owners of mom-and-pop stores on Friday called on the government to freeze the minimum wage in 2019, claiming rising labor costs will seriously impact their profitability.

If the government moves to raise the minimum hourly wage from the current 7,530 won, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) won’t accept it, a KFME official said.

The Minimum Wage Commission is required to set the guidelines for next year’s minimum wage level by Saturday. Representatives for labor are demanding a 43 percent increase in the wage to 10,790 won, but small businesses have made it clear that such a step is unacceptable.

Mom-and-pop stores and other modestly sized firms account for 86 percent of the country’s enterprises and hire 36 percent of its total workforce, according to Statistics Korea.

The country’s minimum wage shot up this year, and the Moon Jae-in government is pushing to raise the hourly base to 10,000 won within three years to achieve “income-led growth.”

But local businesses are lukewarm to the idea. There has been a move to let go of workers due to rising costs, with people in their 20s and 30s facing greater difficulties landing jobs.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but Seattle moved their minimum to $15 an hour and a University of Washington study found it cost jobs.

It is going to be interesting to see how much market the new Homeplus Special warehouse store is going to be able to capture in South Korea:

The second basement of Home plus’ Mokdong branch in southwestern Seoul looked totally different, Wednesday, as the discount store’s space selling groceries has been converted into a warehouse store with capacious shelves piled with boxes.

“As I said in March at a press conference about the business strategy of Home plus, we will unveil Home plus Special today to fulfill our promise to make a store satisfying our customers,” Home plus CEO Lim Il-soon said at a press conference, a day before the opening of Seoul’s first Home plus Special. “We opened Home plus Special stores in Daegu and Busan last month, and they have been well-received by consumers.”

Defining Mokdong as the battlefield of retailers in Korea, she predicted fierce competition with Yangpyung Costco Warehouse and Lotte Vic Market’s Yeongdeungpo branch, which are 1.6 kilometers and 2.7 kilometers from Home plus Special, respectively.

Home plus, however, is confident the new warehouse store will be a success.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Its finally over:

The patent war between the two biggest smartphone rivals has finally ended.

Samsung Electronics and Apple have settled a seven-year legal dispute over each other’s design patents. Neither disclosed the amount of the settlement.

The two giants informed the district court in San Jose, California, “they have agreed to drop and settle their remaining claims and counterclaims in this matter,” according to an order signed by Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California. The settlement means all suits will be dismissed and no further case will be filed on the same claim.

“We can only say that we have settled with Apple and cannot offer any comment,” said a Samsung spokesman.

The dramatic turn of the lengthy legal battle came a month after retrial jurors in the Northern District of California handed Apple $538.6 million in damages for Samsung violating design and utility (technical) patents that included the infamous “rounded corner” patent. Samsung at the time vowed to consider its options including another appeal.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read much more at the link.

The Cho sisters have both been officially fired by their father from Korean Air:

Add Hanjin Group’s Korean Air Lines Co. to the country’s family-run conglomerates that are seeing the founding clan’s representation diluted.

This time, Hanjin Chairman Cho Yang-ho pushed out his youngest daughter after allegations she threw water in the face of an advertising agency worker during a business meeting. For good measure, he also fired his eldest daughter who four years ago spent five months in jail after the so-called nut rage incident. The executive had forced a plane to return to the gate at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York because of the way she’d been served her macadamia nuts.

Cho Yang-ho, also chairman of Korean Air, said in an email Sunday he will promote professional business managers to replace the airline’s Senior Vice President Emily Cho, his youngest daughter, and Heather Cho, president of the Kal Hotel Network. The chairman announced the changes days after South Korean police had searched Korean Air headquarters following reports of the “water rage” incident.  [Bloomberg]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how long this will last before they are brought back in some capacity into the family business?