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Why does Kolmar Vice Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun repeatedly defer tax payments amid management disputes?

[비즈한국] It has been confirmed that Yoon Sang-hyun, Vice Chairman of Kolmar Group, which is currently embroiled in a family management dispute, has recently entered into a tax collateral agreement using real estate as security to defer tax payments. Vice Chairman Yoon also entered into a similar tax collateral agreement back in 2022. Attention is focusing on the background behind why Vice Chairman Yoon, a high-income earner, is repeatedly deferring his tax payments.

According to BizHankook's investigation, the Seocho District Tax Office established a mortgage with a maximum bond amount of 1.062 billion won on a townhouse in Seocho-gu, Seoul, owned by Kolmar Holdings Vice Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun in March. The reason for establishing the mortgage is a tax collateral agreement.

A tax collateral agreement refers to an arrangement where, upon approval from tax authorities to defer or pay taxes in installments, the state requires collateral to secure the tax collection, and the taxpayer enters into a contract to provide it. Typically, such agreements are made when the taxpayer faces unavoidable circumstances that make it difficult to pay taxes immediately. In many cases, these agreements are also used by the state to preserve its claims when a taxpayer fails to pay taxes on time.

An official from the Seocho District Tax Office explained, “There are various reasons why installment payments or tax collateral agreements are signed. It is not limited to just one reason.”

This is not the first time Vice Chairman Yoon has applied for a tax deferral. According to the real estate register, in October 2022, the Seocho District Tax Office signed a tax collateral agreement with a maximum bond amount of approximately 2.895 billion won using Vice Chairman Yoon’s residence as collateral.

The tax deferral at the time appears to be related to real estate gift taxes. This is because Vice Chairman Yoon received the townhouse he owns as a gift from his father, Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han, just the year prior. Chairman Yoon bought and owned a unit at Lotte Village in Seocho-gu, Seoul, in 1999, before gifting it to Vice Chairman Yoon in April 2021.

Lotte Village is a townhouse complex consisting of 14 buildings, where each building houses only one household. The unit gifted by Chairman Yoon to Vice Chairman Yoon has a gross floor area of 312㎡ (approx. 95 pyeong). Currently, units of the same size in the same townhouse complex are asking for 8 billion won.

The tax collateral agreement signed in 2022 was released in June 2024, as Vice Chairman Yoon paid all the taxes. A tax office official stated, “The tax collateral agreement can only be terminated once the notified tax payment has been fully settled.”

Regarding the reason for entering into the tax collateral agreement, a Kolmar Holdings official stated, “It is a private matter, so it is difficult to confirm,” adding, “However, we have been informed that he is paying the imposed taxes well.”

Meanwhile, Vice Chairman Yoon is at the center of a family management conflict. Citing poor performance and a stock price decline at Kolmar BNH200130, Vice Chairman Yoon pushed for a board reorganization to appoint himself and former CJ CheilJedang Vice President Lee Seung-hwa as internal directors, deepening the conflict with his younger sister, Kolmar BNH CEO Yoon Yeo-won. Recently, his father, Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han, sided with his daughter and filed a lawsuit against Vice Chairman Yoon requesting the return of Kolmar Holdings shares. Regarding this, Kolmar Holdings stated, “The company has no official position regarding the lawsuit.”