부동산세제의 강화가 부동산 매매거래에 미친 영향

정운오(Woon Oh Jung),박성욱(Sung Ook Park) 한국경영학회 2009 經營學硏究 Vol.38 No.1

As the IT bubble had burst in the stock market in the early 2000, the Korean government lowered the interest rate and supplied plenty of liquidity to the market. In the course of the governmental macro-economic policy, the real-estate market became inordinately heated. In an attempt to cool down the market, the Participatory Administration (the nick name for the former President Rho’s Administration) initiated a variety of tax policies, among which were the Comprehensive Real-Estate Holding Tax(CREHT) and a drastic increase in the tax rates for the capital gains (CG) from transferring the second house (and beyond) owned by a single household. These newly-enacted tax policies sharply augmented the tax burden of the households holding multiple houses for investment purposes. This opens up the possibility that the multiple-house owners could save a considerable amount of taxes by liquidating part of their real-estate investment portfolio prior to the effective date of the adverse tax policies. The main purpose of this study is to empirically investigate if the CREHT and/or the policy of abnormally high CG tax rates for multi-house owners triggered the sale of real estate properties (houses, in particular). As a matter of fact, the financial media and tax practitioners had often recommended the sale of real estate as a means of coping with the radical increase in the real estate tax burden during the Rho’s Participatory Administration. Further, most of the real-estate investors were believed to be aware of the recommended tax strategy. Yet, there has been no academic research conducted to verify that this strategy has been indeed substantiated by multi-house investors. This study contributes to the extant tax literature in that it confirms if real-estate transactions take place because multi-home owners attempt to reduce the number of houses in order to mitigate the real-estate tax burden. In addition, this study makes further contribution in that it examines the economic ramifications of the real-estate tax policies initiated by the Participatory Administration. Prior research directly related to this study is Jung et al.(2008), who analyze the impact on real-estate gift transactions of the CREHT and the sharp rise in the CG tax rate for multi-house owners. Jung et al. note that the taxpayers who own an excessive number of real-estate properties could lower the CREHT burden by transferring some of their properties by gift to related parties such as spouses because the CREHT in its original form imposes the real-estate holding taxes on the aggregate monetary amount of the real estate held by an individual taxpayer rather than held by a single household. Jung et al. find that during the six months prior to the initial implementation of the CREHT, gift transactions increase significantly in both the metropolitan and the non-metropolitan areas. Further, the gift of real estate property to a spouse raises the tax base of the property, and its subsequent sale will generate a substantially reduced amount of capital gains. Jung et al. also document that immediately before the sharp increase in the CG tax rate for the households owning more than three houses, real-estate gifts in the metropolitan areas significantly increase. Besides Jung et al.’s study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no prior research investigating the effect of tax policies on the real-estate transactions. This study examines whether real-estate sales volume has significantly increased immediately before a radically increased CG tax rate applies to the households who sell the second house (and beyond). It is also examined if the initiation of the CREHT has caused real-estate sale transactions to increase prior to its effective date. The sample data for this study is monthly real-estate sale transactions over the period of August 2001 and April 2008. It is acquired from the Registration Office through an information disclosure request. This is the most s

오프쇼어링(off-shoring)을 이용한 글로벌 세무전략 사례

정운오 ( Woon Oh Jung ),전규안 ( Kyu An Jeon ) 한국회계학회 2009 회계저널 Vol.18 No.4

D회사의 국제조세리스: 세금재정거래 사례

정운오 ( Woon Oh Jung ),고종권 ( Jong Kwon Ko ) 한국회계학회 2007 회계저널 Vol.16 No.4

K증권과 S은행의 공격적 세무계획: 과세대상 이자소득을 비과세 파생상품거래이익으로 변경한 사례

정운오 ( Woon Oh Jung ),김갑순 ( Kap Soon Kim ),전병욱 ( Byung Wook Jun ) 한국회계학회 2008 회계저널 Vol.17 No.4

지방이전기업의 조세절감목적 이익조정행위

정운오 ( Woon-oh Jung ),선우희연 ( Hee-yeon Sunwoo ) 한국회계학회 2017 회계학연구 Vol.42 No.1

조세특례제한법 제63조의 2는 지역별 균형발전을 촉진하기 위해 기업의 본사나 공장을 수도권 밖으로 이전하는 경우에 일정기간동안 법인세를 100% 면제하는 혜택을 제공하고 있다. 이는 본사나 공장을 수도권 밖으로 이전하는 기업에게 법인세율의 100% 인하와 동일한 효과를 주는데, 이러한 법인세율 인하는 선행연구에서 주로 주목한 미국TRA86에 따른 법인세율 인하와 우리나라 과거 법인세율 인하와는 비교되지 않을 정도로 월등히 크다. 그러므로 이와 같은 법인세 면제 규정은 법인세율이 인하되는 연도의 이익을 증가시키는 세무계획을 통해 절감할 수 있는 조세부담액이 이에 수반되는 비조세비용을 초과할 가능성이 매우 높다. 따라서 본 연구는 본사나 공장을 수도권 밖으로 이전한 기업들이 이 같은 조세혜택에 반응하여 법인세 최소화를 위해 지방이전연도의 소득을 증가시키는 이익조정을 수행하는지 조사하였다. 2000년부터 2014년까지의 기간을 대상으로 분석한 결과, 본사나 공장을 수도권 밖으로 이전함으로써 조세혜택을 받는 기업들은 법인세 전액면제가 시작되는 연도, 즉 수도권 밖으로 이전한 연도의 이익을 유의적으로 증가시킨 것으로 나타났다. 이 같은 실증결과를 바탕으로 조세절감액을 계량화한 결과, 이러한 기업들이 평균적으로 약 9억여 원의 법인세를 절감한 것으로 추정된다. 반면, 이러한 기업들은 지방이전 이후 법인세 감면비율이 50%로 낮아진 첫 연도에는 이익을 줄인 것으로 나타났다. According to the article 63-2 of the Special Tax Treatment Control Law, firms which relocate their headquarters or plants outside Seoul metropolitan area are fully exempt from the corporate income tax for the relocation year and the subsequent 6 years. Such exemption is equivalent to the 22% point reduction of corporate income tax rate as of 2016 which is much greater than the historical decrease of Korean corporate income tax rates, that is 2-3% point reduction at best. Moreover, the decrease is greater even compared to the reduction of the U.S. tax rate through 1986 Tax Reform Act, which lowered the corporate income tax rate by 12% point. Therefore, it is highly likely that the tax savings arising from increasing the income in the relocation year would exceed the accompanied non-tax costs. Accordingly, this study examines whether firms which have relocated their headquarters or plants outside Seoul metropolitan area engage in the income-increasing earnings management in the relocation year to maximize tax savings. With the sample of 16,609 firm/year observations for the period from 2000 to 2014, we find that firms which benefit from the tax exemption for the relocation increase the income for the first year of exemption, that is the year when they relocate their headquarters or plants. We quantify the amount of tax savings from such earnings management and find that those firms, on average, save about KRW 900 million of corporate income tax through income-increasing earnings management.

법인세율의 변화가 기업의 접대비지출에 미치는 영향

정운오(Woon Oh Jung),박찬웅(Chan Woong Park),박종일(Jong Il Park) 한국경영학회 2008 經營學硏究 Vol.37 No.1

This study provides a model explaining how tax rate changes could affect corporate decisions on the spending of entertainment expenditures(EE). This study further test empirically the theoretical results drawn from analyzing the model. In the theoretical analysis, it is shown that the optimal EE of the firms for which its dollar amount falls below the deductible ceiling stipulated in the tax law(low-EE firms, henceforth) is determined independently of tax rates(in other words, the optimal EE of such firms is neutral to tax rates), but that the optimal EE of the firms for which its amount exceeds the ceiling (high-EE firms, henceforth) is dependent upon tax rates(that is, the optimal EE of such firms are not tax-neutral). In particular, a reduction in tax rate results in an increase in the optimal EE because a tax rate reduction lowers the tax disfavor of the EE that exceeds the deductible ceiling. To empirically test these theoretical results, this study analyzes the EE of the years in which tax rates fell, 2002 and 2005, as compared to those of the prior years, 2001 and 2004 for both low-EE firms and high-EE firms. The major empirical results found in this study are as follows. First, consistent with the theoretical prediction, high-EE firms increase the EE in the years of tax rate reductions relative to the previous years. On the other hand, while in 2002 low-EE firms do not increase the EE relative to 2001, they increase the spending of the EE in 2005 relative to 2004. This study provides one potential reason for the low-EE firms’ increase in the EE in 2005. When tax rates decline, it is optimal for high-EE firms to expand the spending of their EE because the tax cost of the EE declines (in particular, the tax cost of the EE in excess of the deductible ceiling). Expanding the EE would, in turn, enhance their competitiveness, resulting in an increase in their market share. This means that the market share of low-EE firms in the same industry would decline. Because it would not be optimal for low-EE firms to acquiesce to a decline in their market share, they would have to increase the spending of the EE as their competitors do. If this is the case, an increase in the high-EE firms’ spending of the EE triggered by tax rate reductions would give rise to an increase in low-EE firms’ spending. While the 2005 increase in low-EE firms’ spending could be explained by the competitive nature of the corporate decisions, the null effect in the 2002 cannot. However, it is likely that because the magnitude of the tax rate fall of 2005 is twice as large as that of 2002, high-EE firms’ spending would be much greater in 2005 than in 2002. So the possibility may have been escalated in 2005 that high-EE firm's spending of more EE stimulates low-EE firms to mimic them. The second major empirical result is that high-EE firms with higher sales growth rates tend to increase the EE spending to a greater extent in the years of tax rate reductions than those with low sales growth rates. This empirical phenomenon is clearly observed in each of the two years of tax rate reductions, seemingly independent of the magnitude of the tax rate reduction. In contrast, a similar phenomenon is not observed consistently for low-EE firms. In 2002, low-EE firms having high sales growth rates exhibit the tendency to increase the EE to a greater extent, but on the contrary, firms with low sales growth rates show the tendency to increase the spending more in 2005. In sum, corporate decisions with respect to the optimal EE in response to tax rate reductions seem more consistent in the case of high-EE firms than in the case of low-EE firms. This supports indirectly the theoretical finding that the optimal EE of low-EE firms is neutral to tax rates, while the high-EE firms’ optimal EE varies with tax rates. In summary, this study has theoretically demonstrated that when tax rates fall, corporate incentives to adjust the optimal EE differ, depending on whether it is a high

론스타의 스타타워빌딩 거래를 통해 살펴본 글로벌 투자펀드의 세무전략

정운오(Woon Oh Jung),전규안(Kyu An Jeon) 한국경영학회 2011 Korea Business Review Vol.14 No.3

본 사례는 사모투자펀드인 론스타가 국내의 스타타워빌딩을 취득하고 양도하면서 등록세 중과세와 양도차익에 대한 과세를 어떻게 회피하였는가를 보여주는 사례이다. 론스타는 (1) 국내에 회사를 직접 신설하는 대신 설립된 지 5년이 지난 휴면법인인 (주)씨엔제이트레이딩을 인수하여 스타타워빌딩을 취득하고, (2) 스타타워빌딩을 자신이 직접 취득하지 않고, (주)스타타워가 취득하게 한 후, 동(同) 회사의 주식 100%를 벨기에 소재 페이퍼컴퍼니인 스타홀딩스를 통해 취득하는 간접적인 방법을 선택하는 조세전략을 취하였다. 본 사례는 다음과 같은 의의를 갖는다. 첫째, 본 사례는 론스타가 소득의 형태를 변경하고(구체적으로는 부동산양도소득을 주식양도소득으로), 소득의 귀속처를 변경하는(구체적으로는 미국의 론스타에서 벨기에의 스타홀딩스로) 세무전략을 구사하였음을 보여줌으로써 글로벌 기업들이 경제적 거래로부터 최대한의 세후이익을 거두기 위해 사전적으로 얼마나 치밀한 세무전략을 시행하는지를 보여준다. 이는 우리나라 기업들도 글로벌 시장에서 경쟁하기 위해서는 치밀한 세무전략을 구사해야 함을 일깨워주는 것이기도 하다. 둘째, 글로벌 해외기업들이 우리나라에서 론스타와 유사한 세무전략을 통해 조세회피 하는 것을 막기 위해 과세당국이 어떻게 대응해야 하는지에 대해서도 좋은 시사점을 제공한다. This case study demonstrates how Lone Star, a U.S. global private equity fund avoided heavy taxes in relation to the acquisition and the subsequent sale of an office building named Star Tower located in Seoul, Korea. Lone Star had established a paper company called Star Holdings in Belgium, and let the holding company acquire 100% equity of a Korean domestic firm named C&J Trading, Ltd. who had not been in operation for the past 5 years. Afterwards Star Holdings changed the name of the Korean firm to Star Tower, Ltd., and purchased the office building through this firm. Lone Star employed the following two tax-planning strategies: First, by acquiring the office building through the dormant local firm rather than forming a new one in Korea and letting it purchase the building, Lone Star was able to avoid paying heavy registration taxes associated with the acquisition of the asset and the issuance of additional equity by Star Tower, Ltd. Secondly, by allowing the Belgium holding company to purchase the 100% equity of Star Tower, Ltd. who was now the owner of the office building, Lone Star managed to convert the capital gains(CG) from trading real estate to those from trading equity shares. This was to take advantage of the tax treaty effective between Korea and Belgium. According to the tax treaty, the CG from real estate is taxed in the country where the real estate is located (i.e., Korea in this case), while the CG from equity shares is taxed in the country where the seller of the shares domiciles (i.e., Belgium in this case). Owing to this strategic tax planning, Lone Star saved approximately 25.3 billion KRW of registration tax that would otherwise have been imposed, and also managed to avoid paying roughly 102 billion KRW of taxes relating to the CG from trading the Star Tower building. The Korean tax authority subsequently challenged Lone Star: While the Korean tax court determined that the registration taxes Lone Star avoided could not be imposed (and therefore the case was closed), a court decision has recently been made that the CG taxes could be levied by the Korean tax authority. This case study proposes the following important implications: First, it demonstrates that Lone Star converted income from one type to another (from real estate CG to CG from equity trading, in particular) and also that it shifted income from one pocket to another (from Lone Star in the U.S. to Star Holdings in Belgium, in particular). Thus, this case eloquently tells how much sophisticated tax-planning strategy is employed by a global private equity fund like Lone Star to maximize the after-tax return on investment. This reminds Korean multinational companies that they should also design and execute sophisticated tax planning in order to compete effectively in the global market. Second, this case also provides some ideas to the Korean tax authority how it should cope with global funds like Lone Star who are ready to do virtually anything to minimize their global tax burden.

세무조정자료의 분석을 통해 살펴본 우리나라 기업의 재무이익과 세무이익의 차이

정운오 ( Woon Oh Jung ),고종권 ( Jong Kwon Ko ),김갑순 ( Kap Soon Kim ),노희천 ( Hee Chun Roh ) 한국회계학회 2006 회계학연구 Vol.31 No.4

본 연구는 우리나라 기업들의 BTD에 관한 현황을 1993년부터 2002년까지의 기간에 걸쳐 기술적으로(descriptively) 분석하였다. 구체적으로는, 이 기간 동안 실제 세무조정 자료를 이용하여 재무이익과 세무이익의 차이를 가져오는 가산조정, 차감조정 및 BTD의 전반적 성격과 시대별 추세를 조사하였다. 재무이익과 세무이익의 차이를 가져오는 세무조정의 성격을 그 자체로 깊게 규명한 선행연구가 아직 없으므로, 본 연구는 우리나라 기업들의 BTD에 대한 기초연구인 셈이며, 연구결과는 향후 세무이익을 이용한 실증연구에 시사점을 제공할 것으로 기대된다. 본 연구의 주요한 결과를 간략하게 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 미국기업들이 일반적으로 양(+)의 BTD를 갖는 현상과는 달리, 우리나라 기업의 BTD는 전반적으로 음(-)의 값을 보이며, 이러한 현상은 표본기간에 걸쳐 각 연도별로 일관성 있게 관찰되고, 기업의 규모나 업종과도 상관없이 관찰된다. 그러나 전체표본을 이익기업과 손실기업으로 구분하는 경우, 손실기업의 BTD가 음의 값을 갖는 현상이 상대적으로 더 뚜렷하게 관찰되었는데, 이는 두 집단의 상이한 이익조정 동기와 상관이 있어 보인다. 본 연구의 두 번째 주요 결과는 BTD의 크기가 표본기간에 걸쳐 큰 변동을 보이는 현상에 관한 것이다. 즉, 표본기간 전반기(1993-1996년)에는 BTD의 크기가 대체로 안정적으로 변화하다가, 후반기(1997-2002년)에 들면 그 절대값이 급증하는 현상을 보이는데, 이러한 변화가 외환위기 이후 우리나라 회계기준이 국제회계기준을 대폭 수용함으로써 세법과의 괴리가 단기간에 걸쳐 증폭된 데에 기인하는 것으로 판단된다. 본 연구의 결과는 세무조정 및 BTD에 관한 향후 전망을 가능하게 한다. 회계기준위원회는 국제회계기준의 정합성을 제고하고 궁극적으로는 이를 수용하기 위한 노력을 지속하고 있는데, 이는 세법의 자산·부채 평가기준과는 크게 다른 공정가치 회계(fair value accounting)가 기업회계기준에 대폭적으로 도입됨을 의미한다. 뿐만 아니라 기업연금회계와 같이 현행 기업회계기준체계에는 아직 없는 새로운 회계기준이 조만간 도입됨을 의미하기도 한다. 이러한 회계기준위원회의 노력은 세법과 기업회계기준 간의 괴리를 더욱 확장시킬 것이며, 세법체계가 현행처럼 positive system을 유지하는 한, 향후 세무조정과 BTD는 더욱 커질 것으로 예상된다. This study has descriptively explored the characteristics of the book-tax difference of Korean companies (BTD henceforth) over the period of 1993 through 2002. Specifically, this study has examined some static natures and dynamic trends of BTD and reconciling tax adjustments, using the real tax reconciliation data. A Korean corporation needs to reconcile its book income (i.e., income reported in the income statement) to arrive at the taxable income. This reconciliation consists of additions and deductions that need to be made due to various timing and permanent differences. Unlike in the U.S., this reconciliation data is publicly available in Korea in the statement of corporate income tax which is contained in the Business Report filed with the Financial Fiduciary Service (equivalent to the SEC in the U.S.) and in a tax footnote of audited financial statements. As far as the authors know, there has been no prior research in Korea which has conducted in-depth studies of tax recon- ciliations per se that cause the difference between book and tax incomes. This study will thus serve as a foundation study regarding BTD, and is expected to provide useful implications for future empirical research in this area. Major results of this study are summarized in what follows. First, Tables 2, 3 and 5 present descriptive statistics of additions, deductions and BTD on an annual basis. According to Table 2, over the 10 year period the adding amount ranges from ￦18.7 to ￦130.5 billion per firm. The 10-year average is ￦69.2 billion. In each year, the average far exceeds the median implying that a few companies have inordinately large adding amounts while most firms have relatively small amounts (the distribution is skewed to the right). Table 3 shows that the 10-year average deduction amounts to ￦61.8 billion, which is lower than the average addition by ￦7.4 billion. As in the case of the additions, the distribution of the deductions is skewed to the right and the time-series pattern of deductions resembles that of the additions. According to Table 5, the average BTD amounts to -￦7.4 billion, and each year reports a negative BTD as well except in the year of 1994. Further, it is observed that as compared to the 1993-1997 period, the BTD tends to increase (in absolute amounts) in the subsequent years (1998-2002). This is due to the fact that while in the latter sample period both additions and deductions rise, the increase in the additions outweighs the increase in the deductions. That the BTD of Korean companies is negative on average is in contrast to U.S. corporations showing positive BTD overall. The negative BTD of Korean corporations has been persistently observed in most years of the entire sample period. Panel 1 of Table 7 demonstrates that the mean BTD is significantly below zero in eight out of the ten years observed, while the median BTD is negative in each of the ten years. This phenomenon is prevalent regardless of firm size and industry. In Panel 2 of Table 7, the entire sample is divided into two groups according to size; small and large firms. The mean BTD of each group turns out to be negative for more than seven of the years. Panel 4 of Table 7 breaks down the sample into seven groups based on the industry code (light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, information technology, construction, retail and wholesale, transportation, and miscellaneous). It is shown that in each industry both the mean and the median BTD are significantly negative. However, when the sample firms are divided into profit and loss firms, loss firms are more likely to have negative BTD than profit firms. Panel 3 of Table 7 reveals that profit firms have negative mean BTD for three years and negative median BTD for five years only, whereas loss firms show negative mean and median BTD in every year. This result seems to be related to differing incentives for earnings management between the two groups. It seems to be the case that profit firms may recognize income-increasing accounting accruals, most of which are deducted in the process of determining tax income. In contrast, loss firms may wish to take a ``big bath`` to boost future book incomes, and these income-decreasing accruals may need to be added back to determine tax income. A further study needs to be conducted to examine this possibility. The third major result of this study concerns the dynamic trend of BTD. The magnitude of BTD in the earlier period(1993-1996) fluctuated in a relatively stable fashion, but had increased substantially (in absolute amounts) in the later period(1997-2002). This study has found that such a time-series pattern of BTD was due to the increased discrepancy between the Korean tax rules and GAAP, which has accommodated IFRS(International Financial Reporting Standards) on a large scale since the Korean economic crisis of 1997. This finding enables us to predict the future trend of tax reconciliations and BTD. Since its inception, the KASB(Korean Accounting Standards Board) has made a great deal of effort to enhance the conformity of the Korean GAAP to IFRS. This massive effort of the KASB will extend into the foreseeable future, and will thus result in further adoption of fair value accounting, which differs considerably from the valuation rules for assets and liabilities in the Korean tax rules. Further, new GAAP such as pension accounting are waiting to be incorporated into Korean GAAP. All of these changes would further magnify the discrepancy between the Korean tax rules and GAAP, and will therefore increase the magnitude of tax reconciliations and consequently BTD in the future, as far as Korea maintains the positive system of tax law.

무기명채권의 암묵적 조세와 조세정책적 시사점

정운오(Woon Oh Jung) 한국경영학회 2001 經營學硏究 Vol.30 No.1

The main purposes of this study are to document the existence and the magnitude of implicit taxes related to bonds without real names in the Korean bond market, and to present some tax policy implications based on the results. The tax benefit of these bonds is that if held until maturity, the investors are exempt from paying gift or estate taxes. This tax benefit is expected to lower the before-tax rate of return on the bonds, and thus to bring about implicit taxes. This study estimates that investors had legally avoided ￦697.8 billion of taxes by purchasing the ￦4 trillion bonds without real names issued in 1998, and also that they paid implicit taxes amounting to ￦1 trillion and 245.5 billion. This is equivalent to paying gift taxes at 31%. This result provides important policy implications. First, bonds without real names suppress the progressiveness of tax rate structure with the highest rate of 45%, hampering tax equity. This is similar to a clientele-based tax arbitrage which allows taxpayers to convert high explicit tax rate to a low implicit tax rate. That bonds without real names flatten the progressiveness of tax rate structure implies that the coupon rates of these bonds should be carefully determined at the time of issuance. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that the issuance of bonds without real names could be an alternative way of directly collecting gift taxes, which is an imperfect and costly means of enforcing tax laws. If the tax agency is not very effective in enforcing the law, the issuance of bonds without real names permits the agency to collect taxes equal to implicit taxes at the minimum. Even if the agency is highly effective, these bonds have a merit of saving substantial amount of enforcement costs. For ￦4 trillion bonds, investors were estimated to be incurred ￦1 trillion and 245.5 billion implicit taxes. To collect this much gift tax, the agency must identify ￦2 trillion and 767.8 billion worth of gift transactions, even assuming that the highest tax rate can be applied to all the transactions. This implies that the agency must be able to identify gift transactions with approximately 70% probability. If a lower tax rate is applied, a higher probability is required, and the enforcement costs would become much greater.

경제위기 이후 감사제도의 변화가 회계분식 및 감사인의 독립성에 미친 영향

정운오(Woon Oh Jung),김선구(Son Ku Kim),이상승(Sang Seung Yi) 한국경영학회 2004 經營學硏究 Vol.33 No.4