The mostly US outfits have only themselves to blame for arrogantly being tax avoiders for so long. For ages Korean lawmakers have been concerned that the US outfits have been earning billions of dollars in sales and paying no tax.

Domestic companies have been complaining for years about "an uneven playing field", arguing their foreign rivals should pay corporate income tax on the revenue they generate in Korea.

Under the law, the government is unable to tax global companies as it is not mandatory for them to disclose their sales and operating profit there.

However the Corporate Tax Act stipulates that global companies must pay taxes when they have fixed places of business in Korea. This law has provided global companies with an excuse to avoid taxes while they expand their businesses rapidly there as their bases are established in other countries such as the United States, China and Ireland.

Ahn Jeong-sang, a policy advisor to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, said: "Under the current law, preliminary or ancillary places of business are not regarded as global companies' offices in Korea, and this has played a role in their tax avoidance. Considering the characteristics of the digital economy, the concept of fixed places of business needs to be expanded so that the government can secure authority to impose taxes on them."