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South Korean actor Kim Seon-ho has paid additional personal income tax from past earnings from his one-person company and “sincerely bows his head in apology” in a new statement made on Wednesday (Feb 4) by his agency, Fantagio, amid recent tax evasion allegations.
Earlier this week, South Korean media outlet Sports Kyunghyang claimed that the Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha actor was operating a family-owned production company, operated under his residential address in Seoul, with his family members listed as internal director and auditor. It suggested that the company was created to evade taxes.
After Fantagio’s initial statement on Feb 1 denying all claims, saying “there are absolutely no issues whatsoever”, the agency has now released a new, lengthy statement to address how the company was formed, along with an apology from the actor and his admission to “lacking sufficient understanding” on the company operations.
The agency explained that the company was set up in January 2024 for Kim’s acting activities and theatre production, adding that all “settlement payments for his activities during that period were received through that corporation”.
After realising that “the operation of the corporation itself could lead to misunderstandings”, Kim suspended all its activities and that for more than a year, “there has been virtually no activity conducted through the corporation in any practical sense”. It added that since February 2025, all settlement payments have been made directly to Kim as an individual, with the one-person company having “no connection whatsoever”.
South Korean actor Kim Seon-ho for W Korea. (Photo: Instagram/seonho__kim)
The agency also confirmed that the actor has completed all additional payments of personal income tax as well.
They said: “As a preemptive measure to correct the way the corporation was operated at the time – something he was unaware of – Kim Seon-ho returned all past items including the corporation’s card usage records, family salary payments, and the corporate vehicle. Regarding the amounts previously settled through the corporation, he has completed additional payment of personal income tax, on top of the corporate tax that had already been paid.”
Fantagio ended off the statement with an apology from the actor himself: “Kim Seon-ho is deeply reflecting on the fact that he established and maintained the corporation for about a year while lacking sufficient understanding of how corporate operation works. He sincerely bows his head in apology.”
Kim Seon-ho is the second artist under Fantagio to be accused of tax evasion, after South-Korean actor-singer Cha Eun-woo, who is currently under investigation after owing 20 billion won (US$13.6 million) in unpaid taxes.
