The government plans to increase Korea’s tax burden in proportion to its national output from 20.2 percent to 21 percent over the next four years. This is part of efforts to service growing welfare costs in the long-run at the expense of increasing taxes on average workers. Its recent proposal to replace income tax deductions with tax credits and raise tax rates for the top 20 percent of earners...

The National Tax Service said Thursday that it has slapped a total of 1.37 trillion won in additional taxes over the past five years on self-employed high-income earners such as doctors and lawyers who evaded taxes. Last year, the NTS unearthed a total of 598 self-employed high-income earners who dodged taxes.

Korean children get most of their caffeine from soda while adults consume the stimulant mostly from instant coffee mix, according to a study based on the annual state survey of public health in 2010.

Chinese investors are buying more and more stocks, bonds and real estate in South Korea. According to government officials, Chinese investors purchased a total of 1.08 million square meters of land worth 355.8 billion won ($319.5 million) in South Korea last year.

According to a report submitted by the National Tax Service to Rep. An Min-suk, singers, earning 52.55 million won ($46,700) last year, topped the list of average incomes among celebrities. Actors and actresses made an average 41.34 million won while athletes earned 29.85 million won, and models 13.1 million won.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the number of unused credit cards in Korea was 23.1 million as of last month. The number has been dropping at a slow pace since early this year. It was 23.4 million in April and 23.5 million in January. The FSS regards a credit card not in use for more than a year as a dormant card.

The Ministry of Education will roll out a series of measures to strengthen provincial universities and address a decrease in the number of students. As part of the plans, the government will increase financial support for provincial universities, and introduce regulations that allow such institutions to set aside a portion of available places for students from nearby areas.

The financial soundness of the nation’s major banking groups is expected to reach its lowest since the 2008 global financial crisis. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the combined net profit of 12 financial groups, including Woori and KB, is forecast to reach about 7.3 trillion won ($6.56 billion) in 2013, down 25.5 percent from the previous year.

South Korea on Monday approved planned shipments of humanitarian aid for the North. Five civic groups were allowed to send medicine, food and clothes worth 1.47 billion won ($1.25 million) to aid children. Seoul also approved about 678 million won in aid from the Eugene Bell Foundation in April.

According to Strategy Analytics, South Korea’s average sale price for mobile phones was $415 per handset last year, becoming the most expensive in the world. It attributed the high price to the high proportion of sales taken up by premium-level smartphones.

6.28 million students in 11,410 schools surveyed from June 28 to July 8

The number of companies from the U.S., Japan and Germany on the Fortune 500 list has been decreasing while more and more Chinese firms have made the list. Meanwhile 14 Korean companies including Samsung Electronics were included on the 2013 list, showing little change in number over the past five years.

The total fertility rate is the average number of children that would be born to a woman during her lifetime.

According to data released by the Korea Lottery Commission, unclaimed lottery prize money from 2009 to July 15 in 2013 amounted to 178 billion won. The fifth prize of 5,000 won took up about 61 percent of the unclaimed money. Winners have 12 months to claim their winnings. (Unit: billion won)

Thanks to a surge in exports of hallyu-related products, Korean entertainment-related firms including filmmakers, broadcasters and game makers earned about $800 million in royalties from foreign firms and individuals’ use of their intellectual property rights last year. It is an increase of 17.6 percent from the previous year that posted $680 million, according to data from the Bank of Korea.