Korean Inheritance Tax Joint Liability Ledger Calculator

Reconcile inherited tax shares and joint liability

Filing one Korean inheritance tax return does not establish who actually funded each payment or whose individual principal tax was credited.
When one sibling pays first, an incomplete ledger can count the same payment twice, overstate another heir’s unpaid tax or hide an unsettled family advance.
This calculator starts with an already established total principal tax and separates individual shares, tax-office credits, possible exposure to others’ unpaid tax and unsettled family advances.

Article 3-2 of Korea’s Inheritance and Gift Tax Act distinguishes each person’s own obligation from joint payment liability within the property limit.
Do not multiply another heir’s unpaid tax by your civil-law inheritance fraction to find this limit.
Review the individual tax allocation, statutory net-property base and actual payment attribution first.
The worksheet supports that review; it does not determine the tax office’s assessment, payment attribution or collection decision, or approve a family agreement.

Keep these six amounts separate

Why the tax-base equivalent differs from a civil-law share

Enforcement Decree Article 3(1) uses an individual inheritance-tax-base equivalent divided by its statutory denominator.
The calculation incorporates added gift-tax bases and the attribution of current inherited property.
It is not necessarily a real-estate value ratio or civil-law succession fraction.
The default mode therefore asks for each person’s already reviewed assessment.

The optional ratio mode takes Wᵢ from a reviewed return or tax adviser and allocates the entered total in proportion to those values.
Confirm that all taxpayers are included and that their equivalents reconcile to the statutory denominator.
The calculator does not reconstruct omitted people, individual tax credits or surcharges.
Special cases such as B = 0 require separate review using assessed amounts.
Whole-won allocation uses the largest remainder, with input order breaking ties: KRW 101 and three equal equivalents produce KRW 34, 34 and 33.
This preserves the planning total; it is not the statutory payment-rounding rule.
Ratio-mode output always remains an assumed scenario because actual individual assessments can differ.

Start the joint-payment cap with statutory net property

Decree Article 3(3) includes added gifts in assets obtained through inheritance and deducts liabilities, inheritance tax and gift tax on those added gifts.
Deduct the full own inheritance-tax amount imposed or payable once, whether it has already been paid or remains outstanding.
Subtracting own payments again would reduce the cap twice.
Omitting the own-tax deduction merely because it is unpaid would overstate the cap.

The ledger subtracts previous payments for others when showing arithmetic remaining capacity.
Verify actual attribution and whether those payments are recognized as use of the joint-liability limit with the tax office or adviser.
Negative net property is preserved in the detailed calculation and produces a warning with a displayed cap of zero; this does not cancel the person’s own tax obligation.
Payments for others above the initial cap also trigger review, without calculating an automatic refund.

A family reimbursement is not a second tax payment

If A pays KRW 10 million toward C’s principal tax, C receives that credit and C’s unpaid amount decreases.
The same payment is an advance by A and reduces A’s remaining capacity in this worksheet.
If C later returns KRW 3 million to A, the unsettled family advance becomes KRW 7 million.
The amount credited by the tax office remains KRW 10 million, and the family transfer does not restore A’s used capacity.

Enter the accumulated reimbursement received by the ledger date and the last receipt date for that amount.
If some money has arrived and the rest is expected later, enter only the amount already received as of the selected date.
Do not combine current and future reimbursements in one accumulated amount.
An amount dated after the ledger date is excluded from current settlement deductions.

Worked example: KRW 120 million original principal tax

Assume individual tax shares of KRW 60 million for A, 36 million for B and 24 million for C.
A’s cap is KRW 150 million inherited assets + 50 million added gifts − 20 million liabilities − 60 million own tax − 5 million corresponding gift tax = KRW 115 million.
B’s initial cap is KRW 54 million and C’s is KRW 56 million.

Individual additional preparation is own unpaid principal plus that person’s extra exposure: KRW 38 million each in this example.
Do not sum the individual exposures of KRW 38 million, 14 million and 24 million as a new family tax bill.
They are separate ceilings referring to the same unpaid joint tax.

From documents to a useful consultation

1. Prepare the original total and all individual principal amounts on the same filing or assessment basis.
   Exclude penalties.
   Choose a ledger date from 2026-10-01 through 2026-12-31.
   
2. Add each heir using an alias, then enter inherited assets, added gifts, liabilities and corresponding gift tax.
   Use unknown or assumed status when evidence has not been reviewed.
   
3. Assign the actual payer and credited individual for each receipt.
   Enter family reimbursements separately and avoid duplicate receipts.
   
4. Calculate, then check withheld results, negative net property, advances exceeding the cap and excluded future rows.
   Distinguish own unpaid tax, others’ unpaid tax and extra exposure.
   
5. Complete the evidence checklist and save the TXT or print to PDF.
   Keep the original notices, property schedules, tax receipts and reimbursement records separately for the tax office or adviser.
   

Changing inputs hides previous results and their export controls until you recalculate.
Check the new ledger date and review notes before sharing.
An evidence-reviewed status means the user reviewed the inputs; it is not legal approval by this calculator.

Situations where a separate ledger helps

Withheld results and scope limits

The ledger date is an aggregation date, not a statutory filing or payment deadline.
The calculator does not invent a deadline, calculate challenge or claim limitation periods, or accrue civil interest.
If property was sold or a division changed, check assessment, attribution and valuation rules instead of substituting current cash proceeds.

Frequently asked questions