거주자의 국외원천소득과세 - 국제적 동향과 제도개선 -

초록

Korea’s Income Taxation is structured on the residence approach, under which her residents are taxed on their world-wide income. Nowadays economic activities are freely conducted over national boundaries. It is desirable for a country’s taxation system to keep abreast with other countries’. Given the recent international surroundings, it’s time for us to discuss on the gradual switch-over to the source approach. The residence approach should be kept for mobile incomes such as interest income, but the source approach is highly needed for immobile incomes such as business income. Considering the reality of Korea, any attempt to introduce such a taxation system based on the source approach may invite strong opposition by those who support the virtue of equity in taxation. For now, minor amendments to the current tax laws as below would be more realistic as far as they allow effects similar to those caused by the actual introduction of such taxation based on the source approach. First, with regard to the Foreign Tax Credit system, switching the current rule of limitation by the country to the rule of limitation by the type of income(dividing into mobile incomes and immobile incomes) is desirable. Next, as for the Indirect Foreign Tax Credit, its scope of application should be recovered to what it was before the amendment at the end of 2014. In addition, the Korean Controlled Foreign Corporation Taxation should be amended so that the deemed dividend taxation is not applied to the immobile incomes derived from actual business activities. Finally, the requirements of “resident” should be more simple so that taxpayers can consciously select their residency in Korea in a clear manner. The abuse of the resident provision may be sanctioned by the introduction of the Exit Tax.

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