납세자의 권리구제를 위한 심판청구제도의 합리적인 개선방안

The administration should be based on the Constitution and laws, and it needs to establish a system to protect people’s rights and interests against illegal or unfair administration. Particularly in the case of tax administration grounded on the violation of personal interests, it is badly in need of the protection of taxpayers’ rights and interests. The taxpayer protection system has been operated on ex-post treatments, especially the system of national tax appeal. However, the system has not functioned for which it was set up due to various problems such as shortage of judges and investigators, insufficient professionalism, work congestion and delay caused by manpower shortage, insufficiency of quasi-judicial factors and otherwise. The followings show the problems in the system of national tax appeal and the solutions:First, it is advisable to so reorganize the Tax Tribunal that it may function as an extraordinary agency of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, i.e., a tax system maker and executor. Second, it needs a wide expansion of the tax tribunal, along with the supply of human resources, in order to solve the problems such as manpower shortage, work congestion and delay. In addition, there is a need to set up a system to secure experts at proper time. Third, the tax commission should be reformed to secure the fairness and objectivity of decisions. Moreover, tax judges’ qualification, tenure, remuneration and identity should be made into a law, secondarily to the judiciary. In addition, a law should be enacted to call in experts such as professors, lawyers, tax accountants and certified public accountants at a reasonable remuneration. Furthermore, quasi-judicial factors should be more sufficiently reflected in the process of hearing and decision. Lastly, it needs to legally accept the re-audit system that is widely conducted for operational convenience, though it has not been based on the Framework Act on National Taxes, and by extension, to stipulate contestations concretely. The betterment of the national tax appeal-system is expected to solidify taxpayers’ rights and interests.