플랫폼 공유경제의 과세문제 ― C2C 공유경제를 중심으로 ― = Taxation issues in the platform sharing economy ― Focusing on the C2C sharing economy ―

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The development of the platform sharing economy has enabled individuals to break away from traditional economic activities and engage in new economic activities. InIn particular, it is the spread of the C2C sharing economy, where individuals can easily access the platform and act as economic entities, such as selling goods they own or providing their own service. As a result, the gig economy, where individuals work or provide services for short periods of time, is becoming more active. The gig economy includes various types of irregular jobs such as freelancers, independent contractors, and temporary contract workers, and has characteristics that are different from traditional economic activities. As mentioned above, individual economic activities are increasing due to the C2C sharing economy, and this may result in harming tax fairness depending on whether related income is taxed. Accordingly, the tax authorities began to search for how to tax such income and find an efficient taxation method.
In Korea, income of less than 5 million won from rentals such as accommodations during economic activities through platforms is taxed as other income, and income exceeding this amount is taxed as business income. In addition, platform operators are required to withhold tax when paying compensation to individual providers. However, taxation issues still remain in cases where platform sharing economy activities other than accommodations or platform operators do not pay compensation to individuals.
Regarding the taxation of C2C sharing economy activities using platforms, the platform operator, which is the intermediary, must be able to provide this information to the tax authorities because it holds information on providers and users. In the OECD and EU, platform operators' information reporting systems and cross-border information exchange systems are actively utilized to enforce taxation. Korea will also need to require platform operators to report related information to the tax authorities, and through this, it is important to tax those who earn income through platforms. At this time, in order to facilitate taxation, it is necessary to impose a withholding tax obligation on platform operators. Of course, the platform operator acts as an intermediary to pay income to the provider, but since it is not the actual payer, it has not withholding tax obligation under the current tax law. Legislative supplementation is needed. Since overseas platform operators are not required to withhold tax under the current tax law, issues of fairness with domestic platform operators may be raised. Therefore, in the case of overseas platform operators, it is necessary to introduce a domestic agent system under the Electronic Commerce Act or utilize the overseas business registration system under the Value-Added Tax Act, and to establish an institutional framework to exchange information on platform operators between countries.