Samsung heirs finish paying record $8bn tax bill

The Lee family, stewards of Samsung Electronics, has finished paying down a 12 trillion won inheritance tax bill that set a new record for South Korea. The family settled the full $8bn tab this week, completing a five-year payment schedule that began after patriarch Lee Kun-hee’s death in October 2020.

Lee Jae-yong, the executive chairman, along with his mother Hong Ra-hee and sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, divvied up the responsibility. The sum represents roughly one and a half times South Korea’s entire inheritance tax revenue for 2024, a detail Samsung helpfully noted in its announcement.

The original obligation stemmed from Lee Kun-hee’s 26 trillion won estate, an assortment of shares, property, and an art collection featuring works by Picasso and Dali. Some of those artworks found their way to the National Museum of Korea and other cultural institutions.

At 50%, South Korea’s inheritance tax rate ranks among the world’s steepest, which explains why this settlement drew such investor scrutiny. The size of the bill threatened to complicate the family’s grip on Samsung, though the company’s operational structure ultimately kept control intact.

The Lee family’s combined net worth now exceeds $45bn according to Bloomberg’s billionaire tally, a figure that has doubled in the past year thanks to surging demand for computer chips from the artificial intelligence sector. Samsung’s semiconductor business, paired with its smartphone manufacturing and television operations, has benefited substantially from the AI boom.

The Samsung empire traces back to 1938, when Lee Byung-chul founded the group. His grandson now carries the weight of running South Korea’s largest chaebol, a family-controlled conglomerate sprawling across electronics, heavy industry, construction, and financial services. The dynasty’s succession line remains reliably dramatic by local standards, generating regular headlines about control, taxes, and family drama.