The family that controls Samsung has completed a historic inheritance tax payment worth 12 trillion won — about £6bn or $8bn — bringing to an end one of the largest estate settlements ever seen in South Korea.
The payment was linked to the fortune left behind by Lee Kun-hee, Samsung’s former chairman, who died in October 2020. His estate was valued at around 26 trillion won and included company shares, real estate and a major art collection. The tax bill was paid over five years in six installments, beginning in 2021 and ending with the final payment in 2026.
Those involved in the payment included Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, his mother Hong Ra-hee, and his sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun. Samsung confirmed that the last installment had been made, closing a process that had been closely watched by investors because of its potential impact on the family’s control over the Samsung empire.
The scale of the tax bill is extraordinary. Samsung said the amount was roughly one and a half times South Korea’s total inheritance tax revenue for 2024. South Korea’s inheritance tax system is among the strictest in the world, with top rates reaching 50%, which made the Lee family’s bill especially large.
When the family first announced the payment plan, they said that paying taxes was a natural duty of citizens. Alongside the tax settlement, part of Lee Kun-hee’s estate was also donated to public institutions, including valuable artworks by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, which were given to museums and cultural organizations.
Samsung is South Korea’s most powerful chaebol, a family-controlled conglomerate with businesses across electronics, construction, shipbuilding, insurance and financial services. Its technology arm, Samsung Electronics, is one of the world’s biggest makers of smartphones, TVs and memory chips.
The timing of the final payment comes as the Lee family’s wealth has risen sharply. Demand for semiconductors used in artificial intelligence has boosted Samsung Electronics’ market value, helping lift the family’s combined net worth to more than $45bn, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires ranking.
Samsung was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul, the grandfather of current leader Lee Jae-yong. What began as a trading company has grown into one of the world’s most important business groups, and the completion of this inheritance tax payment marks a major moment in the transfer of control from one generation of the Lee family to the next.
