On 13 October 2026, a regulatory filing showed that Hong Ra-hee, widow of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee and honorary director of the Leeum Museum of Art, had agreed the day before to give 11,158,000 common shares of Samsung Electronics to her son, Lee Jae-yong, the company’s chairman. The transfer is set for 12 November. At the 13 October closing price of ₩236,000, the shares are worth about ₩2.6 trillion, or about $1.9 billion according to Billionaires.Africa.
The gift follows a sale. On 12 October, Lee completed an off-market purchase of 7,667,100 shares from his mother for about ₩1.92 trillion. Between the two deals, about 18.8 million shares, 0.28% of all issued shares, move from mother to son. The family’s combined stake does not change, but more of its votes gather with one heir. And every route has a tax cost.
The two deals, step by step
- 9 September. A filing announced that Lee planned to buy 7,188,793 shares from his mother on 12 October at ₩269,500 each, the closing price of 8 September, about ₩1.94 trillion (MTN).
- 12 October. The purchase settled: 7,667,100 shares at ₩250,500 each, about ₩1.92 trillion (Hankyung, Newspim). The price and share count differ from the September plan, while the total stayed close to ₩1.9 trillion. The reports we read do not explain the change.
- 12 October. Hong signed the gift agreement.
- 12 November. The gift shares are due to move.
Some reports date the purchase to September, when it was announced. Hankyung gives 12 October as the settlement date, which matches the date in the September plan.
Measured against all issued shares, common and preferred, Lee’s stake rises from 1.47% to 1.58% after the purchase and to 1.75% after the gift, or 116,377,053 shares. Hong’s falls to 0.99% after the purchase and to 0.82% after the gift, according to Hankyung.
How Korea values a gift of listed shares
The bill depends on a rule in Article 63 of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act. For listed shares, the taxable value is the average of the daily closing prices over the two months before and the two months after the valuation date: about four months in all. For a gift, that date is the day of the gift, here 12 November. The window therefore runs from mid-September to mid-January, so the value cannot be known until early 2027. One day’s price, high or low, cannot set the bill on its own.
The same article adds 20% to the value of shares held by a company’s largest shareholder and related parties, with exemptions, for example for small and mid-sized companies, according to tax commentaries we read.
Gift tax rates are progressive, from 10% to 50%. The top rate applies to the part of the taxable amount above ₩3 billion, so almost all of a gift this size falls in the top band. Hankyung estimates the tax at about ₩1.56 trillion; Reportera says more than ₩1.5 trillion. For reference, ₩1.56 trillion is 50% of ₩2.6 trillion plus 20%, though Hankyung does not show its working.
Why gifts are added together
Korean law also counts gifts from the same person over ten years together (Article 47). When the giver is a parent, gifts from that parent’s spouse count as well. So this gift sits on top of an earlier one: in November 2025, Hong agreed to give Lee her entire 1.06% stake in Samsung C&T, the company through which the family controls the group, with the transfer set for 2 January 2026 (Newsis). The effect: a family cannot split one large transfer into many small ones to stay in lower brackets. At this scale, the effect is limited, because nearly everything is taxed at the top rate anyway.
Why buy some and receive the rest?
A purchase and a gift have different costs:
- A purchase costs the buyer cash, here about ₩1.92 trillion, but a sale at the market price is not a gift. The seller receives cash.
- A gift costs the receiver nothing up front for the shares, but it brings a gift tax bill that may be more than half their value.
The family has not explained why it split the transfer this way. MTN reported in September that industry observers believe the sale is meant to repay loans taken out in connection with the inheritance.
The inheritance tax behind it
That tax was very large. After Lee Kun-hee’s death in 2020, the family paid inheritance tax of about ₩12 trillion in six instalments over five years, with the last one due in April 2026, Newsis reported. Of that, Hong’s share was about ₩3.1 trillion and Lee’s about ₩2.9 trillion. Hong had placed 15 million Samsung Electronics shares in a disposal trust with Shinhan Bank to pay taxes and repay loans; Lee relied on dividends and loans. Now an estimated gift tax of ₩1.5 trillion or more follows. (For how another country taxes business heirs, see our post on Germany. For why Korean dividends often rise after a handover, see our data note.)
A fair caveat
The final tax will be known only after the four-month window closes, and the published amounts are press estimates. We could not open the DART filings, so the figures here come from Korean outlets that reported them; on a common-shares-only basis, the percentages would differ. Tax rules, including the largest-shareholder premium, can change, and we checked them in commentaries rather than in the latest statute text.
Five lessons to take away
- A window, not a day, sets the value. Korean listed shares are valued at a four-month average around the gift date.
- Gifts add up. Gifts from the same parent, and that parent’s spouse, are counted together over ten years.
- Buying and receiving carry different bills. A purchase costs the buyer cash; a gift costs the receiver tax.
- Control can move while the family stake stays flat. The total does not change, but votes gather with one heir.
- Large transfer taxes take years to pay. Samsung’s family spread about ₩12 trillion over five years.
Questions to bring to your advisors
If we move listed shares within the family, which date sets their value, and how much could the bill swing? Do earlier gifts from the same parents count toward this one? Would a sale at market price, a gift, or a mix suit our cash position better, and what does each side owe? These are questions to bring to your lawyers and tax advisors, not advice.