The National Tax Service said Thursday that it has launched a full-fledged investigation into 224 figures including private moneylenders on allegations of tax evasion.

The 224 targets are composed of 117 private moneylenders, 51 entrepreneurs in the conglomerate sector, 48 individuals on suspicion of offshore tax-dodging and eight purchasing agents of overseas goods.

The tax agency clarified that the probe is aimed at securing a base to levy taxes on dubious profit-makers in the underground economy.

“We’ve dispatched 927 inspectors as an increase of about 400 compared to past probes in manpower,” an NTS official said. The task force is the largest-scale ever, which is an apparent reflection of the Park Geun-hye administration’s willingness to raid tax evaders in the black market.

According to the NTS, some of the 51 entrepreneurs have been suspected of concealing company funds in bank accounts under borrowed names in a bid to evade corporate taxes or exploit tax loopholes.

In an alleged bid to dodge inheritance taxes, some of the wealthy company-owners sought power transfers to their children via irregular intra-group trading.

In addition, some figures have allegedly concealed their wealth in overseas tax havens such as Delaware in the United States and the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean Sea ― as an offshore evasion practice.

Citing past cases, an NTS director general said some private moneylenders could be handed over to the prosecution as well as being ordered to pay the possible back taxes.

Tax authorities plan to have more access to financial data collated by the Financial Intelligence Unit in order to crack down on tax evasion in the underground economy, where a huge amount of trading is done in cash.

The black market is estimated at between 300 trillion won and 400 trillion won, according to the NTS

The tax agency is allowed look into the FIU’s transaction and settlement data only when there are suspicions that people are engaged in tax evasion, but it is not allowed to share its data on large cash-based transactions.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)