Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced plans for a huge one-off dividend payment for shareholders with its controlling family facing a multi-billion-dollar inheritance tax bill. Chairman Lee Kun-hee, the richest man in South Korea, left his children a monumental fortune when he died in October, along with a tax tab reported to be more than $10 billion. The group's flagship subsidiary Samsung Electronics said it would give a "one-time special cash dividend" to shareholders on top of their regular payment -- and more than four times higher -- as part of its full-year results. The special payout was part of a previously-announced plan, but Yonhap news agency reported the amount was "far higher than the market estimate". The tech giant -- the world's largest maker of smartphones and memory chips -- also announced a new increased three-year shareholder return programme. Analysts say the payments will help the conglomerate's heirs -- including Samsung Electronics vice-chairman and de facto leader Lee Jae-yong -- meet a gargantuan tax bill. Under South Korean law, Lee Kun-hee's estate is taxed at 50 percent -- in addition to a 20 percent surcharge on stocks he held as the largest shareholder in a firm. Reports have estimated that around 11.4 trillion won ($10.2 billion) in inheritance taxes will be due on the late patriarch's stock assets alone. "Samsung C&T is one of the biggest shareholders of Samsung Electronics and Lee Jae-yong is the biggest shareholder of Samsung C&T," said Kim Dae-jong, a business professor at Sejong University. "Around 2,000 won per share is an astonishing amount and it will greatly ease the burden of inheritance tax," he added. Samsung this month reported a 26 percent jump in fourth quarter net profit from a year earlier, but warned of ongoing uncertainties over the pandemic and lower earnings in the first quarter of 2021 owing to falling prices. Lee Jae-yong is currently in prison after being sentenced to two and a half years last week in a retrial over a sprawling corruption scandal, a ruling that analysts say could complicate the decision-making process at the top of the company. sh/slb/oho