The National Tax Service (NTS) issued one-point-five trillion won in income tax refunds to freelancers between 2022 and this year.

The NTS said Saturday that it issued the refunds to six-point-18 million people, including delivery persons, cram school teachers, private caregivers and bathhouse workers.

Four million freelancers were notified of 823 billion won in refunds for 2022 at the May reporting deadline, of which three-point-11 million received 802-point-nine billion in refunds.

In August, one-point-78 of these types of income earners were told to receive uncollected refunds of 220 billion won for 2018 to 2022. Of these, 380 thousand have collected 47-point-three billion won.

Two-point-69 million people received 615-point-five billion won in refunds last year.

The NTS said improvements to the tax service's homepage allowed freelancers to collect 200 billion won more in refunds than in 2022. It added that the refund total was likely to rise as people can claim refunds for up to seven years after the regular reporting deadline.