the Korean capital gains tax, because of the appearance of policy tax system to constrain the speculative investment in real estates, has gone through ups and downs without rational consistence rather than keeping the legal stability as a tax system i...
the Korean capital gains tax, because of the appearance of policy tax system to constrain the speculative investment in real estates, has gone through ups and downs without rational consistence rather than keeping the legal stability as a tax system itself. There is no denying that the taxpayer's right and interest has been dealt with lightly because emphasis has been put on the policy purpose in the tax system rather than the financial purpose. This paper deals with methods how to introduce neutral and stable capital gains tax system that can solve various problems in the current tax system from a viewpoint of taxation of income tax itself rather than a policy angle of the real estate tax system.
Even though it is difficult to describe what the capital gain is in one word, which is the study object in this paper, it can be defined the added portion of the economic value accruing during holding period of it. In reality, it is not easy to find a case to levy tax on the unrealized transfer income, and so the taxation on the real estate capital gains would be the difference between transfer value, acqisition value and the necessary expenses at the time of transfer of the real estates, namely taxation on transfer gains.
In case of Korea, capital gains are classified under the income tax category and taxed as capital gains tax separated from other ordinary incomes that are taxed aggregately.
By analyzing and arranging the past change process and current development of the capital gains tax system, this paper seeks to evaluate it from the perspective of the principle of inherent capital profit tax system and to find a real estate capital gains taxation method that would solve those problems and meet the Korean situation. First, as a short-term alternative, a reform plan is proposed for the tax system, calculation of taxable incomes, the tax rate structure that has problem in the current tax system framework, and then as a long-term alternative legislation method for new capital gains tax is presented. This should include not only the improvement of the taxation system, a calculation method of taxable income, a tax rate structure that are pointed out in the existing capital gains tax system but also the capital gains of movable property, expansion of taxable objects of valuable securities, assets of free transfer such as inheritance or gift that are currently under consideration by government, and a succeeding research on uncompleted part would be desired.
Thinking from the comprehensive income concept as claimed in the net asset increase theory, it is a general theory that the capital gains should be included in the taxable incomes from the viewpoint of the increase of economic power and improvement of tax bearing capacity. When viewed from the level of equity, there is no reason to discriminate in taxation because there is no difference in tax bearing capacity between capital gains and ordinary incomes. As the structural characteristic, that exists in the capital gains tax such as concentration effect, freeze effect and taxation on the nominal income by inflation, differs from ordinary incomes in its feature, and this justifies the preferential tax measures.
The current income tax law classifies the incomes into aggregate, retirement and capital gains, and each sector is not grossed up but separated for taxation. The profit that are realized by selling the assets that fall on the group of taxable objects among capital assets is separated from the ordinary incomes and is levied as capital gains tax, and it also takes different shape from that of the aggregate incomes in taxational structure. As taxable objects of capital gains tax due to the transfer of assets, stipulated are the land and buildings, right to real estates, stocks or shares and other assets.
Taking a look at the transition process and the current development of the capital gains tax system of the key nations like U.S.A., they take various shapes based on the economic environment, the situation of the capital markets, the income level of each country, and most of them has capital gains tax system based on the net asset increase theory. Tax exemption policy is implemented to enliven the government bond market or to activate the market of new commodities like derivative financing and others depending on the financial market situation, but the taxable objects include items more extensively than in Korea where taxation is restricted only to unlisted stocks and some listed stocks, but in case of U.S.A., even movable assets such as paintings and antiques are included for taxation. On the other hand, in order to prevent the blocking effect and concentration effect, there is a tendency to relieve the tax burden more to the long-term capital gains than that to the short-term one. Also, aggregation with ordinary incomes or deduction carried over, not to mention the grossing up between the capital gains, are permitted to some extent and this can be considered reasonable from the viewpoint of principle of ability-to-pay. In case of a house, tax preference is applied to the primary residing house and in many cases, house deduction is allowed to a certain extent.
Various problems in the Korean capital gains tax system were investigated by dividing them into the taxation system, the taxable income calculating method, the tax rate structure and the overseas real estate issues.
Firstly, a consideration was made on the situation of the tax-exempt regulation to the one-household-one-house and the issue of exemption on the exchange or dividing·combining of farmland. It is also pointed out that the tax-exempt system on the one-household-one-house in the house taxation is not only against the overall capital gains tax system but also not in harmony with the whole income tax system, and it also impede the principle of ability-to-pay, principle of horizontal equity. This also contradicts the neutrality of taxation and it is pointed out that the