한국과 주요국의 조세 및 사회보장 부담에 관한 비교 분석

Abstract

This paper investigates country comparison on the tax burdens and the social security contribution among eight OECD countries, including United State of America, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Japan, and South Korea. The basic measures for comparison are the indices of per capita gross domestic product, total tax burden, federal or central tax burden, local tax burden, and social security contribution. I also estimate average marginal tax rates, average marginal tax rates that exclude time trend, income elasticities of tax burden and social security contribution. The main results are as follows. Firstly, while OECD average growth rates of per capita GDP show 4.5% from 1980 to 2015 and the average growth rates of 7 countries excluding South Korea are between 3.9% (Japan) and 5.2% (the United Kingdom), South Korea’s average growth rate records high at 8.0%. It is because South Korea has been a developing country with high growth rates before the Asian economic crisis in 1997. Among eight counties, Japan has experienced drastic changes in terms of US dollar-based value. Per capita GDP of Japan illustrates 1.91 times higher than OECD average in 1995 mainly due to Yen appreciation. It lessened to 0.95 times compared to OECD average in 2015 because Japan has confronted to the lost two decades after the burst of bubble economy in early 1990s. Per head tax burden reveals a similar pattern to per head GDP since GDP directly affect to tax burden. That is, South Korea’s average growth rates of per head tax burden have risen with a high speed, and Japan per head total tax burden has been most volatile since 1980. However, Sweden records 2.17 times higher than OECD average in per head total tax revenue that includes social security contribution in 1980 and 1.69 times in 2015. Secondly, even though tax burdens of countries with unitary government differ from those with federal government, tax burden ratios to GDP vary from country to country. In the federal countries including Germany, USA and Canada, tax burden ratios to GDP at the state level are higher than at the local level, in which the state-tax burden ratio to GDP records highest at 12.4% in Germany in 2015. Among eight countries, the local-tax burden ratio to GDP shows highest at 16.9% in Sweden and lowest at 1.6% in the United Kingdom. While the total tax ratio to GDP records highest at 47.6% in Sweden, it does lowest at 25.3% in South Korea and next at 26.3% in USA. In the burden ratio of social security contribution to GDP, France shows highest at 16.9% and the United Kingdom does lowest at 6.1%. Thirdly, according to the estimation of total tax revenues with the periods from 1991 to 2015, the average marginal tax rates to income (per capita GDP) appear highest at 0.460 in France, lowest at 0.240 in USA, and next lowest at 0.266 in South Korea. However, the average marginal tax rates that exclude time trend appear highest at 0.691 in USA, lowest at 0.183 in Canada, and next lowest at 0.254 in South Korea. South Korea shows highest income elasticities of total tax burden at 1.189 and Canada does lowest at 0.183. In the estimation of central or federal tax revenues with the same periods, the average marginal tax rates record highest at 0.261 in the United Kingdom, lowest at 0.096 in USA. The average marginal tax rates to GDP at central or federal level that exclude time trend appear highest at 0.500 in USA, lowest at 0.115 in Canada. From the estimation result we know that marginal tax rate that excludes time trend appears high in USA. Meanwhile, South Korea shows highest income elasticity of tax burden at central level with the value of 1.068 and France does lowest with 0.629. Finally, according to the estimation of local tax revenues with the same periods, the average marginal tax rates appear highest at 0.164 in Sweden, lowest at 0.020 in the United Kingdom. The average marginal tax rates at local level that exclude time trend appear highest at 0.054 in South Korea, lowest at 0.008 in the United Kingdom. However, the United Kingdom shows highest income elasticities of local tax burden at 1.462 and Canada does lowest at 0.883. The results indicate that though the average marginal tax rate of local tax is lowest in the United Kingdom, UK has high elasticity of local tax burden. In the estimation of social security contribution, the average marginal tax (contribution) rates appear highest at 0.145 in France, lowest at 0.045 in Canada. On the other hand, the average marginal tax (contribution) rate that excludes time trend appears highest at 0.073 in Japan due to the rapid aging society. Furthermore, South Korea shows highest income elasticity of social security contribution at 1.696 and France does lowest at 0.835. This result indicates that South Korea has highest income elasticity of social security contribution. Considering the estimation of tax burdens mentioned above, Korean people may feel heavy marginal burdens of tax and social security contribution.