피지배외국회사 과세제도에 대한 비교법적 고찰

With world economic integration, the number of multinational corporations as well as foreign investors is rapidly increasing. Also with the free movement of capital, the likelihood of tax avoidance using low-tax jurisdictions increases. Therefore, controlled foreign company legislation is important tools in many countries to prevent the allocation of income to low-tax jurisdiction. Korea also introduced the legislation in Chapter 4 of the International Tax Coordination Act. Under the controlled foreign company legislation, the resident owners of a controlled foreign low-taxed corporation are taxed annually on the profits of that company, even if the profits have not been distributed as dividends or been realized in the form of capital gains. The basic components of the controlled foreign company legislation in countries are quite similar. A large number of the legislations focus on passive income, but active income is also quite frequently targeted. Low taxation from the perspective of the country where the parent company resides is also common requirement although there are some exceptions. Some criteria including the level of control required and the type of income targeted vary country to country. Some feature including granting the credit for tax paid at the controlled foreign company level. Recently there has been considerable focus on multinational corporations not paying enough tax and engaging international tax planning and arbitrage in the countries where they are active. It has come to public attention and the OECD has launched a project on base erosion and profit shifting (‘BEPS’). The BEPS project includes the action plan to strengthen controlled foreign company legislation. Therefore the research on this topic should be continued and the result would need to be reflected in the legislation.