South Korea's Incheon Headquarters Customs has caught importers evading value-added tax (VAT) by misdeclaring 'boiled ferns' as 'boiled vegetables in retail packaging', taking advantage of a temporary VAT exemption for the latter. The customs authorities have determined that the misdeclared product was not a blanched fern, as it underwent a heat treatment and preservation process that altered its original structure, and hence, should not have been exempted from VAT. Consequent to this fraudulent activity, Incheon Customs has imposed a VAT liability of KRW 1.3 billion on 8,942 tons of the wrongfully exempted volume and demanded tax reporting for 1,057 tons of upcoming imports. The customs agency will enhance its scrutiny of potentially tax-evasive items to prevent such incidents in the future.