If you have not received a national tax refund, you can check the unclaimed amount through the 'Find National Tax Refunds' service. However, refund amounts are not stored indefinitely. If a refund is not claimed within five years of the first payment demand date, it reverts to the state treasury, so the deadline must be checked.

[Search 5 Years of Unclaimed Refunds... Need to Distinguish Two 'Base Dates']

The Find National Tax Refunds service shows refunds that have gone unclaimed for the past five years from the refund decision date. Here, the 'refund decision date,' which determines the search range, and the 'first payment demand date,' which is the basis for the treasury reversion deadline, must be distinguished. The first payment demand date refers to the day the National Tax Service first requested a financial institution or other entity to pay the refund.

[How to Search... Enter Resident Registration Number or Business Registration Number]

On the search screen, select either Korean national or foreigner according to taxpayer classification, then enter a resident registration number or business registration number along with a name or trade name. Registration numbers should be entered as digits only, without hyphens, and trade names can be searched with just a partial word.

[Search Results ≠ Actual Unpaid Refunds... Payment Requests via 'Detailed Search']

Even if a refund amount appears in the search results, the actual payment status should be checked as well. Due to differences in refund payment procedures with financial institutions, amounts already paid out by a bank may temporarily appear in the results.

To request payment of a refund, use the 'Refund Detailed Search' function. This involves confirming the unclaimed status through Find National Tax Refunds and then proceeding with the payment request procedure.

[Year-End Settlement Refunds Through a Separate Hometax Path]

Refunds related to year-end tax settlement are guided to be checked through a separate route: the Hometax menu 'My Hometax > Income & Year-End Settlement > Payment Statement Submission History.'

The significance of the Find National Tax Refunds service lies in helping taxpayers directly confirm the existence of unclaimed refunds and request payment. In particular, since refunds revert to the state treasury after a certain period, it is important to check whether any refunds remain unclaimed.

[Search results and actual payment status may differ depending on the timing of processing. The payment status of individual refunds and the application procedure should be confirmed through the National Tax Service's Hometax. AI assisted with this article.]