관세법상 거래가격 산정을 위한 구매자와 판매대리인의 구별기준― 대법원 2017. 4. 7. 선고 2015두49320 판결[공2017상, 1015] ―

Abstract

The judgment ruled that if the importer is simply as a domestic sales agent of the exporter at the time of deciding the taxable value of customs duty on imported goods, the price paid by the domestic buyer to the importer can be the basis. However, if the importer is in the position of an independent seller for domestic buyers, the importer must determine the taxable price based on the import price provided by the importer to the exporter. And the qualification of the between the two statuses is made, considering the formal and substantial aspects of the transactions such as the contract parties of the import contract, sales contract, the import price and the domestic selling price determination method, the domestic buyer's supply process of the goods, the attribution of risk, and the intent of tariff evasion, according to the transactional and social custom. The judgment is meaningful in that when applying the first method of tariff assessment, we presented criteria for determining the parties to sales. Although there was a precedent on the case where it became a question whether it was a purchase agent in the past, it seems that the judgment was the first to present in the form of an abstracted doctrine. However, although the criteria which the judgment abstractly seems to be reasonable, it is difficult to easily agree on the result applied to the concrete fact relation of the judgment. In other words, the subject judgment focused on the attribution of formal ownership and risk burden to distinguish the domestic sales agent with the buyer, but the criterion for distinguishing the domestic sales agent from the buyer is in the attribution of the calculation. From such a point of view, there is a difficult aspect to convince the conclusion that the judgment has given. From now on, it will be noticed how to apply the abstract doctrine that the Supreme Court has given in the judgment in the future case.