Since sharply hiking the minimum wage this year, the Moon Jae-in Administration has vowed to provide support to small business owners hit the hardest by the change.<br />On Thursday, the National Tax Service announced a series of measures to reduce their burden. <br />Kim Hyesung has more. <br /> Korea's National Tax Service, or NTS, said Thursday it will postpone tax audits or scrap them entirely for around five-point-seven million self-employed people and small businesses 'til the end of 2019.<br /><br /> "First, we will postpone tax inspections for five-point-1-9 million people, about 89 percent all of those self-employed in Korea whose annual earnings are below a certain amount. They will not have to verify the contents of their tax filings."<br /><br />The tax audit exemption applies to the self-employed in wholesale and retail with sales under 600 million Korean won or around 530-thousand U.S. dollars a year...and those in food and lodging services with sales under 265-thousand dollars a year.<br /> It does not apply to high income earners like laywers and doctors or real estate businesses. <br /> In addition, around 500-thousand small businesses with sales of between 900-thousand to 1-point-6 million dollars, who account for 70 percent of Korean businesses, will be exempt from tax audits 'til the end of next year. <br />The announcement comes after President Moon Jae-in called earlier this week for measures to help reduce the tax burden on the self-employed. <br /> The self-employed account for over a quarter of Korea's working population, and they've been hit the hardest by a hike in the minimum wage this year of 16 percent... and by sluggish domestic consumption. <br />NTS Commissioner Han Sung-hee said the agency hopes the change will help small businesses and the self-employed focus on their businesses, but he also emphasized that those suspected of tax evasion will still be thoroughly investigated.<br /> The National Tax Service will also create a task force on taxes to support innovative growth, which will provide customized support and make the tax reporting system easier for startups. <br /> Lastly, the NTS promised to work on its job stabilization fund to support those hit by the minimum wage hike.<br />Kim Hyesung, Arirang News. <br />
