SEOUL, November 20 (AJP) - South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) is set to recover roughly $8.6 million in dividend taxes from Sweden after Swedish authorities formally acknowledged the fund’s tax-exempt status for investments in listed stocks.
The decision, announced Thursday, covers taxes paid between 2016 and 2020 and is expected to save the NPS an additional $6.4 million annually going forward.
The pension fund is also seeking refunds for about $8.8 million in taxes paid from 2021 through 2024. Although Sweden’s Social Insurance Fund is exempt from such taxes, the NPS was initially denied the same treatment as a foreign institution.
The Korean fund applied for exemption in 2021 under the European Union’s non-discrimination rules, but its request remained unresolved for nearly five years due to ambiguous regulations.
Momentum shifted earlier this year when Finland’s public pension fund won a similar case, prompting the NPS to push Swedish authorities for action in May. The NPS ultimately secured its exemption and refund without resorting to litigation, becoming only the second foreign pension fund — after Finland’s — to receive recognition of tax-exempt status in Sweden.
The latest win follows similar successes in Europe. The NPS previously reclaimed $5.9 million in taxes from Finland under the EU’s non-discrimination clause and is now pursuing comparable refunds in Germany, Italy, Austria and Poland.
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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