Seoul: Google Korea, the local unit of the U.S. tech giant, paid a mere 17.2 billion won (approximately US$12.2 million) in corporate taxes in 2024, according to a statement by a lawmaker. The amount is purportedly a small fraction of what South Korean companies would have been liable to pay.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Rep. Choi Soo-jin from the People Power Party highlighted this discrepancy, referencing a report by professor Jeon Seong-min of Gachon University. The report suggested that Google Korea’s revenue for 2024 might have reached up to 11.3 trillion won. By applying the tax-to-revenue ratio of 5.9 percent used by South Korean internet giant Naver Corp., Choi argued that Google Korea’s expected tax liability should have been around 676.2 billion won.

Choi further noted that Google Korea was responsible for 31.2 percent of the country’s data traffic last year, a significant contrast to Naver’s 4.9 percent. Despite this, Google Korea reported only 386.9 billion won in revenue, whereas Naver’s sales were 10.7 trillion won, leading to a corporate tax payment of 390.2 billion won by Naver in 2024.

The lawmaker expressed concerns over the potential consequences of ignoring the domestic revenue minimization and tax strategies employed by global tech giants like Google. Choi emphasized that such practices could impede fair competition with local firms and negatively affect South Korea’s information and communications technology ecosystem in the long run.