Amid the peak of her popularity as the lead in "Queen of Tears," Kim Ji Won is embroiled in a controversy, making her viral on different portals. What happened?

Kim Ji Won Reportedly Sets Up Paper Company To Purchase Property in Gangnam

Ahead of the finale of "Queen of Tears," lead star Kim Ji Won is creating a buzz online due to her purchased property.

On April 19, it was reported that Kim Ji Won had purchased a multi-million dollar building in one of the expensive places in Seoul, Gangnam. The property that she bought was said to cost USD 4.7 million (6.30 billion krw) in 2021. It's located near Gangnam-gu Office Station and has one basement and five above-ground floors.

As netizens searched more about the issue, they found things suspicious. They discovered that the "Fight for My Way" star purchased the building through Jiwon Entertainment Co, Ltd, a company where the actress is the representative and only employee.

Kim Ji Won Accused of Avoiding Paying Taxes

With limited information gathered by them, people were quick to accuse Kim Ji Won of setting up a paper company to make the big purchase.

As they pieced the timeline together, netizens accused the female star of purposely planning to evade taxes.

It has been said that several individuals established paper companies to try to make use of real estate tax waivers for commercial purposes, and due to this, a law was put in place.

Companies are only exempted from this tax if they make their purchase five years after the company was set up. People discovered that Kim Ji Won established Jiwon Entertainment in March 2016, and bought the building five years later in June 2021.

After the news broke out, the actress' agency High Zium Studio released a statement:

"It is hard to confirm the news as this is the artist's personal matter."

Netizens React To Speculations of Kim Ji Won Avoiding Paying Tax

However, this ongoing issue has affected Kim Ji Won's image, and people started to say harsh words to the actress.

• "It is so different from her image."
• "It's a paper company?"
• "People are just jealous of her."
• "She's in the wrong if a paper company was involved. Even if she's not making any profits from it now, Kim Ji Won could in the future. Her intentions from the beginning weren't pure."
• "If she tried to evade taxes that way, then it's a big problem. It's not a matter of whether she's earning profits or not from the purchase and sales prices. It's right that people have a problem with how she set up a company for such reasons."
• "If celebrities make their fortune through fame, can't they stay away from real estate investments? They're already rich, while the regular peeps have to salve away due to rising land prices."

Kim Ji Won has not yet responded to the issue.

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Shai San Miguel wrote this.