Cha Eun Woo personally addresses reports of alleged 20 billion won tax evasion

Actor (and ASTRO member) Cha Eun Woo is currently embroiled in a tax evasion scandal. Late last week it was reported that he was investigated last year on suspicion of tax evasion, and that the National Tax Service notified him over additional taxes of over 20 billion won.

Essentially, he’s accused of having a paper company to lower his taxes.

According to the report, what the National Tax Service has taken issue with is the structure of Cha Eun Woo’s income. Despite already having an agency, he is alleged to have set up a separate family company (Corporation A)—established by his mother—had the two parties enter into a service agreement, and used this as a workaround to lower taxes by splitting his income among Fantagio, Corporation A, and himself—thereby evading taxes.
For this reason, the National Tax Service reportedly judged Corporation A to be a so-called “paper company” that did not provide substantive services and concluded that Cha Eun Woo had failed to pay more than 20 billion won in income tax.

Shortly after the report was released, Fantagio replied in a statement, saying nothing was confirmed.

In response to the report, Fantagio released an official statement saying, “The key issue in this matter is whether the corporation established by Cha Eun Woo’s mother falls under the category of an entity subject to substantive taxation. Nothing has been finally confirmed or officially notified at this time, and we plan to actively clarify the matter in accordance with lawful procedures.”
They continued, “In order for the process to be concluded as swiftly as possible, the artist and his tax representative will cooperate diligently. We assure you that Cha Eun Woo will continue, as a citizen of this country, to faithfully fulfill tax filings and his legal obligations.”

Cha Eun Woo himself is currently in the military.

As you can imagine, due to his popularity this became a major mess, and netizens everywhere have done their thing by making it worse with speculation and misinformation galore. Quite frankly, though, I’ve seen little solidly confirmed either way.

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Making the story recent, moments ago he personally addressed the scandal on Instagram. He starts by doing the standard apology and what not, then denies speculation that he enlisted to avoid this mess.

I am writing this after finishing my daily duties within the military unit.
Currently, I am serving in the military, but this was by no means an intentional choice to avoid this controversy. Last year, I was in a situation where I could no longer postpone my military enlistment, and thus I enlisted without being able to complete the tax investigation procedures.
However, I deeply feel the responsibility for this misunderstanding, which also stemmed from my own shortcomings.
If I were not a soldier at the moment, I would want to personally visit and bow my head to all those who were harmed by this incident. With that sentiment, I am writing this letter with all my sincerity.

He later concludes that he’ll cooperate with authorities, accept whatever decision is made, and be better going forward.

I will faithfully participate in the tax-related procedures that will proceed in the future.
Furthermore, I will humbly accept the final decision made by the relevant authorities and take full responsibility accordingly.
In the future, I will reflect on myself more rigorously and live with a greater sense of responsibility, with the mindset of repaying the love I have received.

I don’t see a need to rush to judgement here, as the results will come out in due time. This is a huge story and it’s unlikely to get swept under the rug or anything.

That said, unless this expands in some unique way, I’ll likely just circle back when it concludes rather than covering every rumor or whatever else that’ll inevitably emerge.

I do want to say that one thing I’ve seen that I don’t like is the downplaying of tax evasion as a crime, primarily in the form of fans pointing out there are worse things in society to focus on. Look man, I don’t know whether Cha Eun Woo did anything wrong or not, but Koreans holding the feet of wealthy celebs to the fire over financial crimes is honestly something I wish Americans did. Just because a rich person is not a murderer doesn’t mean something they allegedly did is not worth taking seriously.