통일세와 조세부담에 관한 연구

This study compared the economic situation of Germany at the time of German unification with that of current Korea. The study overviews the issue of recently controversial debate on unification tax and discusses its implications for Korea. Those who are in favor of levying the unification tax argue that it is possible to introduce unification tax system because Korea's current tax burden is comparatively lower among OECD countries. They regard the inter-Korean Cooperation Fund as not adequate for covering huge amount of costs required for unification. Those who are against the levying of unification tax insist that it is not easy to increase the tax burden because Korea's current tax burden is still high compared with that of the United States and Japan. They argue that resolving the disadvantages of the inter-Korean cooperation Fund, using the lottery proceeds, or to raising foreign capital are more appropriate than imposing unification taxes. The implications of the introduction of Unification tax are as following: Before the imposing of unification tax, social consensus needs to be formed in order to reduce the possible tax burden, and unification tax rules should be provided. The the cost of unification by the existing theories was over-estimated because the cost-benefit calculation was based on the total cost. Due to this, it is possible that people avoid the unification. There are several ways of imposing unification tax such as the way of indirect tax such as consumption tax, the way of direct tax such as income tax or corporate tax, and the way of increasing tax rate. Each has advantages and disadvantages. So social consensus should be reached before introduction of unification tax.