Who will be the next top taxman?

By Kim Jae-won

Staff reporter

Who will fill the vacancy left by the departure of Baek Yong-ho, commissioner of the National Tax Service? Baek is now a top aide to President Lee Myung-bak.

Two figures inside the NTS, which has more than 20,000 officers with taxes accounting for 80 percent of the total national budget, or 180 trillion won, are competing for the post.

The two are Deputy Commissioner Lee Hyun-dong and Jungbu Regional Tax Office Commissioner Wang Ki-hyun.

Lee is a 54-year-old Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province native, who has worked his way up at the agency since he passed the senior public service exam in 1981.

Lee’s specialty is tax audits. He has worked for the Seoul Regional Tax Office as tax audit director twice.

He also served for the Seoul office and Daegu Regional Tax Office as assistant commissioner for tax audits. Later he became assistant commissioner for tax audits of the NTS.

Lee became commissioner of the Seoul office, the No. 3 role in the agency in December 2008, and was promoted to deputy commissioner of the NTS in July 2009.