South Korean firms earned 19.5 trillion won ($18.8 billion) from overseas business activities in 2013, up twofold from five years earlier, a report submitted to parliament by the National Tax Service showed Sunday.

According to Rep. Park Won-suk’s office, overseas earnings by local businesses have risen steadily in recent years, especially among the country’s larger companies.

Corporate foreign earnings stood at 8.76 trillion won in 2008, but they rose to 12.42 trillion won in 2010 and topped 18.09 trillion won two years later.

“The NTS data showed that for small and medium enterprises with earnings of less than 1 billion won, overseas income only made up 1 percent of their total gains, although this rose to as high as 11.3 percent for bigger companies,” the minor opposition Justice Party lawmaker’s office said.

It defined large companies as those that reported earnings of over 100 billion won last year.

The latest data showed that earnings from business operations in China reached 9.01 trillion won, followed by 2.19 trillion won for the United States, and 751.4 billion won for Malaysia. Earnings from Vietnam and India stood at 721.8 billion won and 677.4 billion won, respectively.

The lawmaker’s office said most of the earnings generated were derived from investments, taking over stakes in foreign companies, and acquiring new technologies and patents.

It added there is a need for tax authorities to keep tabs on overseas business activities because they could be undertaken as a means to dodge taxes. (Yonhap)