South Korea is considered to be the most difficult country in corporate succession. In South Korea, inheritance tax rate for corporate succession is levied up to 50% on the amount exceeding 3
billion won, just alike that of general inheritance. Not on...
South Korea is considered to be the most difficult country in corporate succession. In South Korea, inheritance tax rate for corporate succession is levied up to 50% on the amount exceeding 3
billion won, just alike that of general inheritance. Not only the personal assets owned by the business owner, but also the value of stocks secured for the management of the company, that is the value of the company, are subject to inheritance and gift tax. Corporate succession goes together with private realm and social realm. Priviate realm is for transferring the assets achieved by the business owner to future generations, on the other hand, the social realm is for surviving, maintaining employment and tpromotes stable growth with other organically connected economic actors. For the same reason, the need for public support to facilitate corporate succession along with the problem of personal inheritance arises at the same time.
Looking at the cases of Germany and Japan, where the corporate succession is proceeded stably, it is confirmed that they are actively supporting corporate succession, such as reducing or exempting inheritance tax that occurs in the process of corporate succession.
The Korean government is also aware of the problems of the existing tax system and is preparing various measures to support corporate succession, but the benefits are only premised on corporate succession, with thorough preparation. Therefore, it is a prerequisite and a necessary condition for successful corporate succession to determine a successor to succeed the company and to transfer the control or management right of the company to him/her stably.
However, according to the existing property succession system under the Civil Law, it is difficult to proceed with the business succession without the sacrifice and consent of other heirs due to a claim for the legal reserve of inheritance, and as a result, there is a high risk of not receiving the benefits from the system designed to support corporate succession.
A trust can realize the wishes of the decedent concretely and continuously in a much more diverse and flexible way than the
property succession system recognized in the conventional Civil law.
In this paper, utilizing such a trust, it is expected that the problems of the existing inheritance system under the Civil Law, especially the legal reserve of inheritance problem, can be solved in corporate succession, and the concrete plan was sought. Specifically, the business owner sets up a living trust to set the right to instruct the trustee to exercise voting rights as the content of the original beneficiary right, and the right to request the successor to receive the original income right including the right to exercise voting rights and the right to deliver the remaining property when the trust contract is terminated. In this case, the non-successor will inherit the right to beneficiary, so there will be no legal reserve of inheritance problem.
In other words, by trusting stocks through the living trust and transferring the beneficiary rights separately, the two goals of corporate succession and satisfaction of non-successor can be achieved at once. In this way, when a successor is designated and the control and management rights are transferred, the successor can do everything he can to prepare for various problems such as inheritance tax that may arise in the process of corporate succession, thereby supporting various corporate succession proposals by the
government. It may open the way to benefit from the system.
Because trusts are inconsistent with the Korean legal system, which is the continental law system, due to their inherent differences,
it is necessary to review the compatibility with the existing system in order to fully utilize them. As a result of examining various problems that may arise when carrying out corporate succession utilizing a trust, it was confirmed that trust can be utilized without contradiction for corporate succession even under the current legal system.
On the other hand, as the Capital Market Act regulates the trust business as a type of financial investment business, there are problems due to excessive regulation or insufficient legislation. There is a problem in that the rules on whether each support is applicable in each case is not clear. As this is a major obstacle to the revitalization of the trust business, prompt supplementary legislation is needed to fill the gap between the legal practice and the law.
Through this, it is expected that the infinite possibilities and various functions of trusts will be realized in various areas including corporate succession.