소득세법에 따른 손해배상의 과세 방안에 관한 연구 ―소득세제의 기본 원리에 따른 해석론―

This Article deals with the question of how to tax indemnification payment under Korean personal income tax law(“Income Tax Law”). The answer is not as straightforward as one might think because of the followings：(i) that the Income Tax Law adopts schedular system under which the tax takes the form of an analytical, rather than synthetic, tax, and, (ii) that the tax is prescribed to be subject to withholding. Under this system, the provisions of the Income Tax Law literally determine and circumscribe the scope of indemnification payment to be taxed. The Income Tax Law actually does exempt certain kind of indemnification payment from income taxation, the policy behind which must be carefully and critically evaluated. Another consequence of this system is that the provisions of the Income Tax Law must specify when, and how much of, the payment should be withheld as income tax. Since indemnification usually means payment of the amount equivalent of the damage incurred under the Korean civil law system, where no punitive damage is recognized, indemnification in principle should give rise to no income. Consequently, the task of the relevant Income Tax Law provi- sions may not be an easy one, and whether those provisions do fulfill such task must be closely reviewed and examined, particularly in light of the famous “Haig-Simons' income concept,” which is the core of the modern income tax. Under those premises, this article criticizes some aspects of the current Income Tax Law provisions, and attempts to present some possible amend- ments thereto in order to improve the overall picture.