Samsung Family Completes Inheritance Tax, Hong Ra-hee Sells Shares Rp35 Trillion

JAKARTA - The Samsung family completed the payment of the inheritance tax of the late Lee Kun-hee after Hong Ra-hee sold Samsung Electronics shares worth nearly 3.1 trillion won or around Rp35 trillion. This conversion figure uses an estimated exchange rate of 1 won around Rp11.3.

Quoted from Yonhap, Thursday, April 9, Hong, who is the widow of Lee Kun-hee, sold 15 million Samsung Electronics shares through a block transaction before the market opened on Thursday. Hong is also known as honorary director of the Leeum Museum of Art and the mother of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

The shares were released at a price of 205,237 won per share. After the transaction, Hong's ownership of Samsung Electronics fell to 1.24 percent from the previous 1.49 percent.

This sale marks the end of the payment of the Lee family's inheritance tax, which is worth around 12 trillion won. If converted at the same exchange rate, the value is equivalent to around Rp. 136 trillion. The tax was paid in installments over five years from April 2021.

The tax burden was not only borne by Hong. According to Yonhap's report, Lee Jae-yong along with his two sisters, Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, also paid inheritance taxes through the sale of shares in a number of group affiliates and other funding measures since 2021.

At the time of his death in October 2020, Lee Kun-hee left assets estimated to be worth around 26 trillion won or around Rp. 294 trillion, including shares worth 19 trillion won or around Rp. 215 trillion.

The completion of this inheritance tax payment is expected to reduce the financial pressure on the Samsung family. This condition is considered to open up more room for Lee Jae-yong to push the "New Samsung" growth strategy.