기업의 조세부담이 투자와 고용에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

Abstract

Lowering the corporate tax rates has been discussed since early 2000s. The tendency of major advanced countries' reduced corporate tax such as Germany and Japan with other rival countries' low tax policy has caused this issue. Besides, the necessities of revitalizing the economy by increasing equipment investment and competition with neighboring countries to attract foreign capital support the argument of lowering the corporate tax rates. This study analyzed the corporate tax burdens of the Korean business sectors. The results are summarized as the followings. Based on Income Before Income Taxes (IBIT), the average effective tax rate of all business had dropped from the 22 % in 1991, slightly risen from the late 1990s, and reached 18 % in 2003. Based on Operating Income, it had remained 17% from 1991 to 1995, slightly fallen from 1996 to 1998, and increased to reach 18% in 2003. A study on the tax burden among industries shows that the effective tax rate is relatively low in manufacture and service industry and high in wholesale, retail trade, real estate, leasing service, and the building industry. In case of service industry, it was relatively high in the early 1990s but the rate became similar to manufacture's. Wholesale and retail trade are burdened with 25~28% high tax of operating income and net income. The difference among business in the manufacture field reveals that the building industry is burdened with higher tax than electronic parts business. This means that there was the large degree of tax credits to manufacture. The difference of the tax burden among business was over 10% in the early and mid 1990s but recently it decreased to 4~6%. It is difficult to determine whether the less difference is good or not but it can be used to arrange the difference of the tax burden among business in the future. On foreign materials, G7 nations are burdened with the higher corporate tax than East Asian countries, which is over 5~10%. Taiwan is the lowest among East Asian countries. Although South Korea is lower than Japan, it is higher than other East Asian countries. Income Before Income Taxes (IBIT) of the average effective tax rate shows the similar result. Approximately, the average effective corporate rate of G7 nations except England and Japan continually has tend to fall since 1999 under the standard of Operating Income. On Net Income, except England, the rate is decreasing by and large. South korea seems to slightly decrease under Net Income, but it remains consistently under Operating Income. Considering the employment table, the additional table of Input-Output tables, the manufacturing industry forms greater part of production than the service business but the service industry places greater part of employment. Especially capital-intensive business develops noticeably and labor productivity improves in the manufacturing industry. This means the less employment is needed to produce the same output. Supposing the constancy of technologies, the output should increase faster than labor productivity to employ more and grow together. According to the result of analyzing the business financial panel material of Korean Investors Service, the corporate tax burden is minus in case of investment. This means that the increase of the corporate tax burden diminishes investment. Especially businesses were influenced more heavily from 1991 to 1999 than from 2000 to 2004. There is gap in the influence of the tax burden on investment among business sectors. The resilience of the tax burden in the manufacturing, building, electricity, and communication business is higher than in the wholesale, retail, restaurant, and real estate business. There is no direct influence in the mining, fishing, and farming business. Apart from the level of the absolute tax burden, considering the relative tax burden of business among industry and business sectors, the degree of the present relative tax burden of business is regarded positively in the aspect of facilitating the equipment investment of business. However, it is difficult to answer the questions about the property of the present tax burden of business and the necessity of lowering the corporate tax rate. Easing the tax burden of business only impact on the equipment investment of business consistently. Thus at least easing the tax burden of business can be helpful to promote investment and its effect can be different depending on the types of industry and business. In addition, it is needed to analyze individually the investment tax credits and exemption items by breaking down the tax burden of business to what kinds of easing the tax burden is the most effective. The tax burden of business has something to do with the employment. Especially it was influenced more heavily from 2000 to 2004 than from 1991 to 1999, which is the opposite with the investment. According to analysis done among business sectors, the resilience of mining, fishing, and farming is the highest. Also, the tax burden of manufacturing, building, electricity, and communication business influences employment. However, the corporate tax burden of wholesale, retail, restaurant, and real estate business is minus, which is too low (fixed effect pattern -0.0553, fixed effect pattern -0.0551) to influence employment. investment. Thus lowering the corporate tax rate and the difference of the tax burden among industry and business does not seem to influence the employment.