Overview
- Samsung confirmed the final installment on the late Lee Kun-hee’s estate, completing six payments over five years totaling about $8 billion.
- The inheritance tax arose from an estate of roughly ₩26 trillion that held company shares, real estate, and a large art collection.
- Heirs Lee Jae-yong, Hong Ra-hee, Lee Boo-jin, and Lee Seo-hyun financed the bill through share sales, stock trusts, dividends, and personal loans.
- The sum amounts to about one and a half times the nation’s entire 2024 inheritance tax revenue, which shows its outsized scale.
- The family paired the payments with major gifts to the public, including ₩700 billion for infectious-disease care, ₩300 billion for pediatric medicine, and more than 23,000 artworks for state museums.