중간지급조건부거래의 공급시기 개선방안에 관한 연구 ― 규정의 폐지 또는 적용대상의 축소 ―

Abstract

The time of supply in cases of interim payment falls on the dates ‘when each and individual interim payments are due under the relevant contracts’, which is prior to the delivery date. It often falls even before the completion of services, ownership transfer or at the time of entering into contracts which is even before the commencement of the relevant supplies. Although it is still uncertain that the services will be completed in the future and the VAT has not been collected from the purchaser, tax invoices should be issued and the output VAT should be reported and paid to tax authority, only because the contracts specifies the dates when the interim payments shall be paid. This is not aligned with the basic principles of VAT system, nor accounting standards, nor corporate income tax regime and does not even appear to have reasonable rationale behind it. This is to pursue tax administrative conveniences merely supporting early tax revenue collection. However, it does not actually support early tax revenue collection either because the VAT output paid by sellers becomes the input VAT credited to purchasers. Therefore, asset transfers in the course of business activities will not have impacts on tax revenue throughout all supply chains. Similarly, VAT-exempted or non-taxable asset transfers will not have impacts on tax revenue during the intermediary transactions. Apart from the problems of the regulation itself, it also creates problems of non-claimable input VAT caused by falsely issued tax invoices, which makes the situation even worse. Therefore it is reasonable to repeal the rules specifying the time of supply in cases of interim payment condition. However, it is inevitable to consider the early tax revenue collection, therefore it is recommended to narrow down the scope of the cases being subject to the rules to the reasonable extent. The suggestions are to limit the scope within the cases of ‘real-estate properties and machineries or relevant services being supplied to the final consumers such as exempted-businesses or individuals’ and ‘aforementioned goods being supplied in the course of providing construction or manufacturing services’. Also the time of supply is determined as the end date of the month only to the extent of amounts being actually paid during the month. The taxable supplies of goods and services will still be subject to current VAT Laws, section 17(special rules on time of supply) sub-sections 1 through to 3.