Writer Meow, who cleared controversy over tax evasion, won a complete victory in the tax trial, and refunded hundreds of millions of VAT

By Yoona, Lee

Nov 28, 2025




Author Kim Na-young (pen name Meowi), the creator of the famous webtoon 'Goddess Kanglim', won the Tax Tribunal after challenging the IRS's imposition of VAT. As a result, hundreds of millions of won worth of VAT will be refunded. The Tax Tribunal judged that the act of Kim's corporation providing the original webtoons electronic files to the platform constituted the "Electronic Publications Supply", which is subject to VAT exemption.

According to Weekly Chosun on the 27th, the Tax Tribunal decided to accept the objection filed by writer Kim in June. As a result, writer Kim will receive a refund of the value-added tax, which was imposed from the second period in 2018 to the first period in 2022.

The issue arose in a consolidated tax audit conducted by the Seoul Regional Tax Office in 2023. It was pointed out that the problem was the structure in which writer Kim provided the 'Goddess Kanglim' electronic file to Naver Webtoon, and the platform provided it to users through reading and lending. Writer Kim did not report value-added tax as it was considered tax-free as an electronic publication, but the tax authorities judged it as taxable.




The Seoul Metropolitan Tax Office considered that the provision of webtoon files corresponds to 'copyrights license (service provision)', not the supply of publications. Accordingly, the logic was that the exemption clause for electronic publications could not be applied.

On the other hand, the Tax Tribunal gave a different interpretation. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's notice, publications issued by publishers and given identification numbers such as author and publishers and ISBN and ISSN are subject to tax exemption. Writer Kim's corporation completed the registration of the publishing industry during the serialization process of 'Goddess Kangrim', and the work was given ISBN and ISSN through Naver Webtoon.

In September, the Tax Tribunal made a decision to apply tax exemption in a similar case. In this case, it was also recognized that the platform distributed webtoons electronic files and granted ISBN and ISSN, so the relevant corporation received a full refund of the VAT imposed.




Meanwhile, Kim's side has been in trouble for a while, suspending his SNS activities due to the controversy over tax evasion that arose after the 2023 tax audit. Regarding this decision, Kim said, `I will continue to fulfill my duty to pay taxes faithfully as a citizen" made a statement.



lyn@sportschosun.com