移轉稅制 개편 논의와 시사점에 대한 고찰 ― 미국의 유산세 폐지와 우리 나라의 포괄주의 증여과세를 중심으로 ―

The purpose of this paper is to seek for some instructive references by way of cross-Pacific reviewing and comparing: (i) the debate in the United States over the abolition of the federal estate tax under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act in 2001 and (ii) the introduction of so-called catch-all clause in the Korean Inheritance and Gift Tax Act in 2003. It looks clear that both the above issues are not easily solved because in each of the issues the confronting positions have equipped their longstanding economic and ideological bases in terms of the tax theory. Notwithstanding, some conclusions might be derived through the working by this paper as follows: In light of the debate in the U.S. over the abolition of the estate tax, it seems very obscure that the transfer taxes, i.e, the estate tax and gift tax, are essential to secure both the horizontal equity by redistribution of wealth and the revenue facility in spite of their modern nature of steep progressivity. To state more clearly, we need to do more economical and empirical analysis and to review much more whether the ideological goal is sound and reasonable. Through this job, we can find the right way to achieve a higher level of horizontal equity and efficiency simultaneously, and also catch up with the global trend in the area of transfer taxation. As a starting point, I propose to change the incomplete form of the current estate tax system in Korea to the complete form of inheritance tax system as Germany does. In case of the introduction of the catch-all clause in the Korean Gift Tax, there exists a substantial obstacle for the clause to overcome the judicial review over the constitutionality arising from the rule of law in the area of taxation. Given the recent attitude of the Korean Constitution Court on the subject issue, I expect the clause to survive the judicial review eventually. Nevertheless, in my opinion, from the standpoint of the logical and unified implementation of the transfer taxation, it is desirable that the current gift tax system under which certain type of capital gains are taxed be changed to the pure transfer taxation system excluding such capital gains to which the income tax is applied.