Who receives the papers and takes the seized items? The September 2026 amendment to the Framework Act on Local Taxes

What changed

Article 28(5) of the Framework Act on Local Taxes overrides Article 28(1) where it is confirmed that the person to be served is arrested, detained or held in the detention room of a correctional facility or a national police agency office: service is then made on the head of that facility or agency. Act No. 22017 changes the wording so that the condition now reads 'a correctional facility or an investigative agency such as a police station', and service is made on the head of 'the correctional facility or the investigative agency such as a police station'.

Article 125 governs the handover of seized items. Under paragraph 1, the head of a local government who makes a report under Article 124 must, where seized items exist, attach a seizure list and hand the items over; under paragraph 2, for items kept by the owner or others under Article 115(4), that head must hand over a custody receipt and notify the owner or others that the items have been handed over. In both paragraphs the amendment replaces 'a prosecutor or a judicial police officer' with 'a judicial police officer', so the handover and the custody receipt now run to the judicial police officer only.

Article 113 requires tax officials designated, under Presidential Decree having regard to workplace and similar matters, by 'the chief of a district public prosecutions office' (in place of the head of a district prosecutors' office) to conduct a penalty-case investigation where any listed ground applies. The official reason gives the aim as tidying provisions that do not fit the new criminal justice framework, in which investigation and prosecution are separated, prosecutors lose direct investigative powers and judicial police officers become the sole investigators.

What to read in the text

The addendum provides only that 'This Act enters into force on 2 October 2026', three days after promulgation on 29 September 2026. It says nothing about cases or acts predating that date and sets out no transitional measures; the pack therefore leaves pending matters unaddressed.

A file must show the date and the setting of the act in question: whether a person to be served was held in the detention room of a correctional facility or of an investigative agency such as a police station, and which head received service; whether a handover or custody receipt under Article 125 fell before or after 2 October 2026; and which authority made a designation under Article 113 and when. The Acts named in the official reason — the Prosecutors' Offices Act, the Public Prosecutions Office Act, the Act on the Organisation and Operation of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Criminal Procedure Act — are not in the pack and this note has not read them.

Questions for the legislature

Article 28(5) now reads 'a correctional facility or an investigative agency such as a police station', naming a police station as an example and using 'etc.' without further description. Neither the text, the addendum nor the official reason supplies a definition or a list of bodies within the phrase. Which bodies other than police stations fall within it as investigative agencies whose head receives service?

Article 113 makes the tax official a penalty-case investigator only where 'the chief of a district public prosecutions office' has designated that official. Neither the text, the addendum nor the official reason states whether a designation made before 2 October 2026 by the head of a district prosecutors' office continues in effect. Does such an earlier designation remain valid after the change of naming authority?

When to revisit

We revisit this note when the Presidential Decree referred to in Article 113 is read against the new wording, when an agency or court decision explains which bodies are 'investigative agencies such as a police station' under Article 28(5), or if a further amendment changes the handover route in Article 125 again.