Watching the largest inheritance tax bill in the world discreetly pay its last installment has a peculiar theatrical quality. There was no press conference or fanfare of the kind Samsung is known for. The Lee family finally paid the 12 trillion won, or about $8 billion, owed to the South Korean treasury following the death of patriarch Lee Kun-hee in October 2020, according to a corporate filing made on a Sunday in early May. Five years. Six installments. The largest settlement of its kind in the nation’s history.
It’s difficult to remember the number itself. It is about 1.5 times the total amount of inheritance tax revenue collected in South Korea in 2024. The bill is almost half of the 26 trillion won estate that Lee Kun-hee left behind. The top inheritance tax rate in South Korea is 50%, which is among the highest in the developed world. The question of whether this rate benefits the general public or merely penalizes succession at family-run conglomerates has long been debated within the nation. It was almost a given that the Samsung case would make headlines.
Observing this over time, it became clear how carefully the family moved. In April 2021, Chairman Lee Jae-yong, his sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, and his mother Hong Ra-hee filed under a deferred payment plan. To raise money, Hong and the daughters entered into stock trust agreements and sold some of their shares in Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, and Samsung C&T. Lee Jae-yong went in a different direction. Instead of selling core shares, he relied on dividends and personal loans; in hindsight, this decision seems more like strategy than preference.
Because this is where it gets weird. Instead of losing control, the family gained more as a result. Prior to the inheritance, Lee Jae-yong’s ownership of Samsung Electronics common shares was 0.70%; it now stands at 1.67%. His stake in Samsung C&T, the de facto holding company that unites the empire, increased from 17.48% to 22.01%. The rounding error on his Samsung Life Insurance position increased from 0.06% to 10.44%. For years, investors had been concerned that the tax bill would weaken Lee’s hold on the chaebol. It didn’t. It tightened, if anything.
The timing was generous, which was very helpful. AI took place. Alternatively put, Samsung Electronics benefited from the global surge in demand for AI memory chips, as evidenced by the company’s 126% share price increase over the last 12 months—its strongest run in over 20 years. As of March 2026, the family’s combined wealth was estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to be approximately $45.5 billion, more than doubling from the previous year. According to some accounts, that amount has now surpassed $62 billion. There is a feeling that the math would have appeared much less sophisticated in the absence of the AI boom.
It would be impossible to write this script without recognizing the inconsistencies. The man approving this massive payment, Lee Jae-yong, has spent much of the last ten years in court or in prison after being found guilty in connection with the bribery scandal that brought down former president Park Geun-hye. He was later pardoned and re-tried in separate cases. When the family filed the taxes, the “natural duty of citizens” line sounded like cautious corporate posture.
It continues to do so. However, there is a catch: the majority of billionaire estates worldwide don’t contribute even close to 50%, and the majority don’t sell art collections valued at up to 10 trillion won, which include pieces by Picasso and Dalí, to the public museum system. Over 23,000 pieces were given away. Between 2021 and 2024, the total number of visitors to 35 exhibitions was reportedly 3.5 million.
It’s difficult not to interpret the entire episode as a silent stress test of how chaebol succession functions in contemporary Korea. For now, the Lees passed it. It’s a different matter entirely whether the next generation will experience the same kind of market tailwind when their turn comes.
