Samsung Electronics Co., which logged record earnings last year on its stellar chip business, saw its corporate taxes shoot up nearly 146 percent on-year to 7.7 trillion won, with the amount for its parent Samsung Group more than doubling to 8.7 trillion won.

SK hynix Inc. and other units of SK Group paid a combined 3.5 trillion won in income taxes last year, up 331 percent from the previous year. LG Group's income taxes rose 10.8 percent to 1.2 trillion won, and those of POSCO Group affiliates spiked some 91 percent to 894 billion won.

In contrast, income taxes paid by the listed affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group tumbled about 33 percent on-year to 1.6 trillion won in 2017 as their combined pretax earnings plunged nearly 35 percent to 8.1 trillion won on sluggish sales.

Despite their record income tax payments, their effective tax rate, or the average rate imposed on a company's pretax total revenue, came to 20.6 percent last year, down 0.8 percentage point from the prior year. (Yonhap)