The National Tax Service is set to gain access to information about all suspicious financial transactions from a state-run financial investigative agency starting late this month, better equipping it to find cheats in the underground economy.

The National Assembly in February passed a bill allowing information sharing between the NTS and Financial Intelligence Unit, an investigative arm under the Financial Services Commission, to crack down on employers who pay their workers cash under the table and illegal capital offshore transfers.

The NTS said the new provision, which was set to be promulgated in the official gazette on Sunday, will be enforced by the end of this month.

“The NTS will be able to find tax dodgers, especially those in the high-income, entrepreneur basket doing cash-based transactions. Our investigations into illegal wealth transfers through selling of financial assets will also be made easy,” an NTS official said.

The tax authorities noted that the access would help tackle the underground economy, which it estimates to be about 20 to 30 percent of the country’s output.

“As tax evasion and money laundering are done through increasingly sophisticated investment techniques, the collaboration would be a great help in tax collection,” he said.

Established in 2001, FIU collects information about suspicious financial transactions to investigate cases of possible money laundering and illegal capital offshore transfers.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)