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South Korean Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Hwang Hee speaks during a press briefing at the government complex in Seoul on Wednesday on the artwork in late Lee Kun-hee's private collection, which will be donated to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and several other art museums. (Yonhap News)

The family members of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee announced Wednesday that they will pay 12 trillion won (US$18.84 billion) in inheritance tax. They will also donate 1 trillion won (US$903.1 million) of Lee's estate and a large number of the artwork in his personal collection.

While the Lee family is only complying with tax law, it's still remarkable considering that the families that control Korea's conglomerates have never paid such a large amount in inheritance tax before. That shows the increasing transparency of Korean society, a change that even the Samsung family has had to accept. We hope this signals that chaebol owners will no longer seek to dodge taxes when they pass on their wealth.

Twelve trillion won is the most money ever paid in inheritance tax; even the children of late LG Chairman Koo Bon-moo only paid 900 billion won (US$813.23 million) in inheritance tax in 2018. Considering that the South Korean government collects a total of 3 trillion won (US$2.71 billion) in inheritance tax each year, the tax on the Lee estate may well set a permanent record.

Samsung Electronics said it's the largest inheritance tax payout in any country in history. That's probably because wealthy people in other countries leave more of their estate to society and less to their family.

It's also significant that the Lee family has agreed to give society 1 trillion won and more than 23,000 pieces of artwork worth trillions of won. They said they would spend 700 billion won (US$632.01 million) to establish a hospital dedicated to fighting infectious diseases and 300 billion won (US$270.86 billion) to treat children struggling with cancer and rare diseases.

In short, the family has made genuine donations, rather than simply giving money to a foundation over which they retain effective control. They seem to have given careful thought to how the money will be used.

The artwork in Lee Kun-hee's private collection, which includes a large number of officially recognized cultural heritages, as well as national treasures, will also be donated to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and several other art museums. That's a donation of an unprecedented scale.

It also conforms to Lee's promise to return much of his wealth to the public. When Lee Kun-hee stepped away from management of the Samsung Group during a slush fund scandal in 2008, he promised to first pay taxes on the money he'd squirreled away in bank accounts under borrowed names and then use the rest for "something useful."

But Lee passed away before he could carry out that promise. The amount of money that should be donated is debatable, but Lee's family was right to follow through on the promise that Lee himself was unable to keep.

But the family behind the Samsung Group should bear in mind that paying the full inheritance tax and making huge donations don't absolve them of responsibility for the dubious techniques they used to pocket part of Lee's fortune before his death. The stock owned by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and his two sisters is worth 13 trillion won (US$11.75 billion), and that's not counting any of their inheritance. Their personal wealth derives from a dubious transfer of wealth facilitated by convertible bonds at Samsung Everland and bonds with warrant at Samsung SDS.

Lee Jae-yong is already serving a two-year, six-month prison term for bribery, and he's currently being tried in connection with an unfair merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, which was designed to consolidate his control over the group.

Some newspapers have improperly sought to link the Lee family's donations and payment of inheritance tax with a push to pardon Lee Jae-yong. Tying together these completely separate matters and attempting to raise support for a pardon will only undermine the significance of the tax payment and donations.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]