판례분석을 통한 조세피난처 역외탈세에 관한 연구

Abstract

South Korea’s response against tax haven abuse has been poor so far. This is because modern day finances and transaction methods have always exceeded expectations of the legal regime. Accordingly, no clear responsive measure has been established in the country’s actions against tax haven, undermining the effectiveness of its regulatory regime and amplifying uncertainties. The court also exercises strict legal interpretation in its rulings on this regard. In this situation, South Korea needs to closely examine its regulations on tax haven while re-organizing their relationships with other individual tax laws. In the case of the income law, in particular, which adopted the principle of positive system, there is high likelihood to avoid taxes by abusing such loopholes of the country’s taxation scheme. In this aspect, this research proposes measures to prevent offshore tax evasion as follows:First, simple terms like ‘paper company’ or ‘conduit company’ are being utilized for the convenience of taxation practices but these words are not clearly defined. For this reason, taxation authorities have frequently failed in the country regarding taxation lawsuits. Second, a foreign entity needs to be more clarified in the corporate tax law along with a resident in the income tax law. Third, the relationships among individual tax laws should be closely reviewed in order to clarify the kind of incomes possible to escape through loopholes in individual tax systems and prevent such an attempt in advance.