세법상 준비금에 관한 고찰― 법적 성질과 세무조정방식을 중심으로

What is the reserves under tax law? The reserves under Commercial Code of Korea can be relatively clearly defined, but it is not easy to make a definition about reserves under tax law. Most of the current tax literatures do not define the concept of the reserves under tax law, and in particular do not distinguish it from provisions under tax law. The reason why the concept of reserves under tax law is unclear is that the tax law recognizes the legal nature of the reserves under tax as liabilities in general but sometimes as reserves under Commercial Code as a part of legal capital. The author demonstrated in the paper that such confusions and contradictions stem not from the legal-logical reason but from the historical reason that the concept of reserves under tax law was imported from United States where the concept of reserves were confused with that of provisions via Japanese tax law. Therefore, the author suggests that, in principle, reserves under tax law should be regulated homogeneously with reserves under Commercial Code and should be distinguished strictly with provisions under tax law. Specifically the legal nature of reserves under tax law should be understood as a part of legal capital and the method of tax adjustment should be unified into declaratory adjustment. Establishing the concept of reserves under tax law distinguished with provisions under tax law can be helpful not only in clear understanding of the object but also in tax practices. In addition, since the concept of reserves has been confused with that of provisions since the early days, additional study on the concept of provisions will be essential.