The South Korean subsidiary of U.S. tech giant Google, which was ordered to pay penalty taxes of 600 billion won by the South Korean government, completed its payment early this year. 

According to industry sources on Thursday, Google Korea made the payment in January after the National Tax Service(NTS) slapped the penalty on the company for not properly paying corporate taxes.

Google Korea, however, has filed a complaint with the Tax Tribunal, which has yet to make a ruling on the case.

Should the Tax Tribunal rule in favor of Google Korea, the company could get the payment back.

At the heart of the dispute is whether global IT firms like Google have a "fixed place of business" in South Korea.

Google Korea and other global IT companies claim that they are not subject to taxation in the country, because their servers are located overseas. But the NTS argues that Google's Korean subsidiary is engaged in actual business in South Korea, including marketing activities targeting domestic conglomerates, and is subject to taxes.