Samsung Electronics, SK hynix's corporate tax tops $8.1 bil. in H1

Corporate taxes paid by Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. totaled a combined 11.2 trillion won ($8.1 billion) in the first half of this year amid the recent semiconductor supercycle, financial data showed Sunday. Samsung Electronics paid 3.99 trillion won in corporate taxes and SK hynix paid 7.22 trillion won in the first half, according to data from the Repository of Korea's Corporate Filings, operated by the Financial Supervisory Service. The two companies' combined corporate taxes jumped 167 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest first-half total on record. The figure followed the record 15.63 trillion won they paid in the first half of 2019, based on their record-high profits during a memory chip boom in 2018. Generally, companies pay corporate taxes in March for the previous fiscal year that ends in December and in August for their interim first-half profits. Market watchers expect the two companies' corporate tax payments to increase further as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix posted first-half operating profits of 146.7 trillion won and 98.2 trillion won, r