과소자본세제의 평가와 개선방안- 국제회계기준의 도입에 따른 영향을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Based on the comparison with other countries and the change in business environments which the International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS” hereafter) causes, this study analyzes current Thin Capitalization Rule (“TCR” hereafter) and suggests the practical plans to revise tax laws to help effectively operate the TCR through the tax system. The comparison shows that the TCR in Korea has characteristics that (i) it regulates the finance industry (ii) it regulates only foreign, not domestic, controlling owners (iii) it does not adopt the arm’s length price (iv) it does not carry over nondeductible interest expenses and, as a whole, the gains from the TCR are relatively smaller than when it operates in other countries. Furthermore, as the “principle-based” IFRS enforces the discrimination debts from equity based on economic substance, the dissociation between financial accounting and tax laws could result in tax avoidances and the inequality of tax burdens. Following plans could be inferred to revise current TCR from above anlayses. First, domestic borrowings should also be regulated in TCR in order to prevent the tax discrimination against external borrowings and to be faithful to the OECD model tax convention. Second, the finance industry should be either exempt from the TCR or lightly regulated in the TCR considering (i) it heavily relies on borrowed capital (ii) it is not regulated in the TCR in other countries and (iii) the deemed capitalization rule could complement the TCR. Third, the concept of “debt” and the condition for it should be defined clearly. Finally, the tax laws should approve the IFRS accounting in order to adhere to the “substance over form” principle and to improve the international comparability of tax systems.