상장주식 자본이득 과세제도의 개선방안에 관한 연구

Abstract

The current Income Tax Law in Korea levies taxes on capital gains generated from listed stocks consigned by large stock-holders and unlisted stocks traded between stockholders. The trading of listed stocks among minority shareholders, however, has been exempted from taxation. This policy has been maintained not to impede the smooth influx of funds into the capital market. But now that Korean stock markets are at a world-class level in terms of trading volume and infrastructure, it is necessary to reexamine whether this type of tax assistance system is sufficiently justifiable to remain in existence in the future. We argue that the existing taxation system needs to undergo improvements so that it could accommodate taxation on capital gains from all sources, which is deemed desirable from fairness perspective. As a way to justify our arguments, we place a special focus on Japanese case since Japan is arguably the only country that experienced a successful transition to a regime which levies taxes on all capital gains. We also conduct a brief questionnaire survey on the opinions of the practicing tax accountants to reflect upon their general views about the possible reforms. The results of the reviews are summarized as follows: firstly, Japan has gradually transformed its system by expanding the scope of the taxation. Secondly, Japan introduced the separate taxation system. Third, Japan enforced the special deduction for the long-term ownership, loss credit, and the deduction carry forward. Finally, Japan maintained the stock exchange tax for 10 years after the reform. The examination of the questionnaire survey responses reveals that the majority of Korean Certified Tax Accountants are in favor of the introduction of capital gains tax system, benchmarking the Japanese case, except for the maintenance of the stock exchange tax.