지방세 환급가산금의 반환의무 시기:헌법재판소 2023. 8. 31. 선고 2019헌가20 결정을 중심으로

Abstract

Currently, the time limit for returning the local tax refund allowance is 30 days after the date of the refund decision. However, there is a problem that the refund allowance is not added early if the tax office knows the reason for the refund but does not determine it as a refund. The Constitutional Court ruled that it was within the legislator's reasonable discretion to set the date for the return of local tax refunds as 30 days after the date of determination of the refund. However, the court raised the issue that the head of the local government could avoid the obligation to pay the surcharge by arbitrarily adjusting the timing of the refund. In other words, if the head of the local government decides on the refund amount rather than the date of receipt of the refund data, and the 30-day period is set as the starting point for the surcharge, there is a possibility that the tax administration may delay the refund decision and avoid paying the surcharge even after knowing the reason for the refund, which may infringe on the taxpayer's property rights. The court's opinion is important because the legal interpretation of when a local tax refund liability must be returned could have different legal effects, including changes in tax rates and statutes of limitations. In this paper, I examine whether the Constitutional Court should leave the timing of the return of local tax refunds within the reasonable discretion of the legislator, as it currently does. In the future, it is expected to be an issue in the Constitutional complaint rather than Judicial review, and the timing of the obligation to return the local tax refund calculation should be as early as possible when the tax administration recognizes the refund through the accounting data. As a result, the Constitutional Court's decision that the issue of the timing of the obligation to return the local tax refund allowance does not violate property rights on the grounds that it is within the legislator's reasonable discretion needs to be changed in light of the statutory nature of the local tax refund allowance.