Foreign tobacco companies dodge billions of dollars in tax on cigarette price hike скачать в хорошем качестве

Foreign tobacco companies dodge billions of dollars in tax on cigarette price hike

Korea's national tax auditor discovered that 2 foreign tobacco companies dodged millions of dollars in taxes. Kim Min-ji explains how these manufacturers took advantage of a government-imposed cigarette price hike last year. Back in 2014, in efforts to curb smoking in the country, the Korean government announced that taxes levied on cigarette packs would be raised by 2,000 won or roughly 1-point-8 U.S. dollars, causing cigarette prices to nearly double. The announcement was soon followed by smokers hoarding cigarette packs before the scheduled price hike. But it turned out that smokers were not the only ones hoarding as many packs as possible. The Board of Audit and Inspection said Thursday that foreign tobacco manufacturers were found to have piled up stocks of cigarette packs in order to dodge taxes. Phillip Morris Korea, which produces and distributes the Marlboro cigarette series in the country, had 106 million packs,... just before the price hike took place,... while British American Tobacco Korea - the manufacturer of Dunhill cigarettes- had 24 million. By selling them after the price hike,... it's estimated that they have dodged taxes equivalent to roughly 153 million U.S. dollars,... and 35-point-5 million dollars, respectively. So how was this possible? Tobacco companies pay taxes not upon the actual distribution of the their products but in advance... when the cigarettes are produced. So they stepped up production to pay only the tax prior the hike,... but distributed such inventory at increased prices after the law took effect. "They created more stocks than usual before the prices were hiked,... and made gains by selling them after cigarette taxes had jumped." The nation's auditor plans to slap the dodged taxes on the relevant companies, as well as impose additional penalties. However, the foreign tobacco makers denied the claims,... adding that if the issue were inventory profits,... the probe should also cover all tobacco companies in the country, referring to the only domestic tobacco manufacturer KT&G. Watchers speculate the exclusion of KT&G from the investigation may be because the company has made social contributions following criticisms over the issue in 2015. Kim Min-ji, Arirang News. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS):   / newsarirang   Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook:   / arirangtv   Twitter:   / arirangworld   Instagram:   / arirangworld