If the benefits from the land development are allowed to be privatized in Korea where inflation is steep, and unbalanced demand and supply of land is chronicle, this might lead to land speculation aiming the marginal profit from resale and unbalanced ...
If the benefits from the land development are allowed to be privatized in Korea where inflation is steep, and unbalanced demand and supply of land is chronicle, this might lead to land speculation aiming the marginal profit from resale and unbalanced distribution of it, and thus result in unsettled land price. In addition, lots of abusive practices on profits from the land development have been seen in the process of policy making, approval and permission in the government itself.
This lead to the introduction of the land development charge, the composite land tax, and the charge for landholding with the expansion of the conception of public landownership in late 1980s. The land development charge is 50 % of the land price at the time of the development commencement, the development cost and the standard land price increment subtracted from land price at the time of development completion.
The development cost charging system especially has problems in the evaluation of land price at the time of both development commencement and completion. Some legal aspects and two cases which show the problems are introduced, and the improvement plan for them are summarized. The change of tax-levying on the nominal land holder into on the actual land holder makes tax assessment and collection convenient. In the business for tax assessment, the criteria on regional estate size, which seems to be lack of objectivity and ambiguity in the standard for separate enforcement. The civilian part has shown withering up in the policy-based government encouraging businesses. Some consideration such as the differential taxation and relaxation measure are required to achieve impartial taxation, to solve civil appeals and to activate economic conditions. Mayors, county chiefs, district directors - as a delegate of the Minister of Construction and Transportation - levy, collect and manage tax. With the supplement of personnel who have special knowledge in taxation, the expansion of education chances for the work force are required to achieve the desired objective and reasonable taxation. And levy-first mindedness for the convenience of administration should be got rid of to recover efficiency in tax levying and collecting, and to save the administrative power.
In the estimation of land price, a selection of proper standard estate is required for the impartial management of land price at the time of development completion. Meanwhile the evaluation at the time of development commencement, the land price has better to be evaluated at the point of its extinguishment. The approval of the actual purchase price with the abolition of the appraised land price is recommended. The lack of objectivity caused by leaving the obliger for payment to determine how to pay it, should be corrected by presenting an objective and exact interpretation of the law. These measures introduced above will lead to the reality based taxation and to the reduction of tax resistance, and will provide a solution to civil appeals. Through the introduction of yearly, quarterly, and regional based tax assesment for the increment rate of standard land price, one should reflect the actual purchase price of the real estate.
For the determination of reference time, the tax should only be imposed for the duration of land development when the commencement of tax assessment becomes the day of land acquisition for the change in land using purpose. The rate of allotment should be adjusted to 20 to 30 % from the present 50 %, and the adoption of multistep differential taxation. In the evaluation development cost, the public trust in land price evaluation and the realization of land price can be achieved through the introduction of the business accounting system rather than the system based on the budget account law, and through the approval of the actual purchasing price of donated land.
The assessment of development charge needs to be settled as a stable system with the improvement measures given above, since it is directly relate to the excercise of people’s right. The harmonious longterm management between the stable land price and the balanced development of the land is necessary to guarantee the financial resources to the local governments in the era of local autonomy. This requires to prevent measures that might discourage the developers, to deter the land owners whose purpose is in land speculations, and to avoid the poor distribution of the land.
The tax resistance from the developer who is not quite prepared for the taxation would be unavoidable since the development charge is levied on the unrealized profits and the obliger for payment is not the same with the actual beneficiary. However, the redemption of development profit as resource for the balanced regional development which is the basic conception of public landownership will be eventually able to build up a reasonable and equal taxation system with some reform measure to the present system.