South Korea’s top 1 percent of streamers earned an average of 671 million won in 2019, according to data released Sunday by the National Tax Service.

According to a report by Yang Kyung-sook of the ruling Democratic Party here, the top 1 percent of tax-registered streamers by income, or 27 individuals, made a total of 18.1 billion won, accounting for around 21 percent of the total income made by all local one-person media creators registered with the tax office.

The number of one-person media creators in the nation in 2019 totaled at 2,776, with their total income reaching at 87.5 billion won a year, according to the data.

There is a vast income gap among the creators, the data showed.

The top 10 percent of streamers, 277 individuals, made a total of 59.8 billion won in 2019, accounting for 68.4 percent of the total. The total income of the bottom 50 percent, 1,388 individuals, however, remained at 1.5 billion won.

“The tax authorities still require thorough supervision over one-person media creators to prevent potential tax evasion and encourage them to voluntarily report to the tax authorities,” Yang said.

Previously, there were difficulties in collecting income data in regards to streamers, as they were classified as self-employed. The National Tax Service first created an occupation code for the new type of business in 2019.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)