증여세 완전포괄주의에 관한 연구 (A Study on the Complete Negative System of Gift Tax Act)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 홍익대학교 법학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 홍익법학 / 12권 / 2호 / 243 ~ 283페이지
· 저자명 : 정래용, 조남희

초록

2004년 증여세 완전포괄주의가 도입된 이후에도 변칙적인 상속ㆍ증여는 계속되고 있고, 특히 기업집단 계열회사들이 재벌총수 일가가 지배하고 있는 비상장회사에 일감을 몰아주는 방법으로 부를 이전하는 사례가 논란이 되고 있다. 이에 대해 정부는 국제조세의 정상가액 과세방식을 원용해 과세하는 방식으로 상증법을 개정하겠다는 방침을 밝힌 바 있으나 이러한 입법방식은 문제가 발생할 때마다 완전포괄주의의 예시규정을 사후적으로 추가해 가는 것으로서 2004년 완전포괄주의의 입법이 되기 이전과 아무런 차이가 없다. 본 연구는 이러한 배경하에서 완전포괄주의 과세제도에 대한 합리적인 개선방안을 제시한 것이다.
첫째, 완전포괄주의는 조세법률주의와 충돌을 발생시키고 있는 바, 개별예시규정으로 열거되지 아니한 거래 유형에 대하여는 가급적 증여세 부과를 삼가고, 납세자에게 법적안정성과 예측가능성을 부여한 뒤에 법을 적용하는 것이 바람직하다고 본다.
둘째, 최초의 행위 또는 거래에 대하여 이미 과세한 이후에 후발적 사유에 의한 거래행위로 인하여 최초의 신고 또는 결정을 경정하여 다시 과세하는 규정들은 납세의무의 성립 및 확정의 법리와의 상충문제를 야기하고 있는 바, 자본이득세로의 전환을 검토해야 한다.
셋째, 상속세및증여세법상 개별예시규정에 나타난 증여유형 간에는 세부담이 서로 다르게 규정되어 있는 바, 증여유형간 세부담의 균형을 이루게 하는 것이 보다 합리적이다.
넷째, 반사회적ㆍ비윤리적 행위에 대하여 까지 조세제도를 통해 규제하려는 것은 조세만능주의에서 비롯된 것이므로 상법 등을 개정하여 기업의 의사결정구조에 제재를 가하는 것이 보다 효율적이고 합리적인 방안으로 보인다.
다섯째, 우리나라의 상속ㆍ증여세제는 그 효과에 비하여 제도유지에 너무 많은 제도적 행정적 노력을 투입해 온 매우 비효율적인 제도라는 비판이 제기되고 있는바, 제도의 폐지 또는 완화라는 국제적 추세를 반영해야 한다.

영어초록

The people in Korea have had negative views on wealth while in the process of industrialization since the chaebols, family controlled conglomerates, have frequently exploited illegal or unethical political connections to make money. That's why our inheritance tax and gift tax law has been gradually strengthened.
The limited negative system had been introduced to tax on the explicitly listed activities in 1998. The itemized negative system had been adopted to tax on the items explicitly listed and the acquired "direct or indirect gains" with "similar cases in methods or gains" in 2001. The complete negative system has been enforced to tax on any free transfer of wealth even if the law doesn't specify the activities or the name, type, or purpose of transactions. It was anticipated that any new or irregular inheritance or gift without tax could be exterminated with the introduction of the complete negative system.
However, the tax evasion has continued through irregular business transactions since the legalization of the complete negative system for inheritance and gift tax. For example, the affiliated companies of Hyundai Motors have given orders exclusively for favors of the Glovis which is controlled by the dominant stockholders of Hyundai Motors and it stirred a social debate because the tax authorities expressed difficulties to tax on those transactions. This has raised issues again that the complete negative system on inheritance and gift tax law could be against the constitution and the law could be ineffective.
The problem of the current negative list of gifts is that the tax authorities have difficulties to define the taxable transactions and calculate the taxable amount for inheritance and gift, which causes difficulties to tax on them. Therefore, it is desirable to restrain taxing on the transactions not listed on the examples of the rules, and to apply the law for the new types of transactions when the enforcement decrees and rules are legalized so that the law provides tax payers with stability and predictability. When the tax authorities make an effort to get credibility from the people for their tax administration for a long time, it will be possible to enforce the negative system on the gift tax without difficulties under the taxation with principles.
Several articles of inheritance and gift tax act such as Articles 2(4), 41(3), 41(5), and 42(4) have issued a problem causing inconsistency with legal principles because they have ignored the characteristics of separate transactions following the first transaction with gift and just combine them with the original transaction to define the whole transaction. It appears that the tax authorities have obsessed to strictly enforce the law to attain the goal by unduly including non-gift items in the transaction. In order to solve this problem, it is highly recommended to introduce capital gain tax system. Currently it could be very difficult to abolish the inheritance and gift tax and introduce capital gain tax system. However, it is necessary in the mid to long term basis to change the inheritance and gift tax to the capital gain tax system after establishing the groundwork of the system and policy.
There is another problem caused by disproportional taxing depending on the types of gifts which is against the principle of negative system since the law defines every example of gifts. Therefore, to tax equitably depending on types of gifts it would be reasonable to categorize transactions into general and capital transactions according to the sources of gain and then to deduct or not to tax up to the certain amount.
It is not desirable to depend wholly on tax system to punish antisocial or unethical behaviors in order to attain certain government policies. It would be feasible to make restrictions on companies' decision making by revising commercial law to prevent the business transactions which affiliated companies favor a specially related company whose not listed on the stock market.
In addition, following international trends of relaxation or abolishment of inheritance and gift tax law, it is highly necessary to review the option of relaxation of inheritance and gift tax law.

참고자료

· 없음