사회복지법인의 공시실태 분석

The role of social welfare organizations on society and the national economy has become more significant than before. While Korean government has spent about 30 percent of national budget for public health and welfare, the weak and ineffective monitoring over the consumption of this budget has continuously been criticized via mass-media. Numerous fraud cases have also been reported associated with social welfare organizations. One of the important reasons for ineffective monitoring would be the lack of transparency in public disclosures of these organizations. This study analyzes disclosure practices of social welfare organizations in Korea. In particular, this study focuses on social welfare organizations and investigates the current status of their disclosure practices. Understanding the current status of disclosure practices provides regulators and contributors of the organizations with insights on how they monitor social welfare organizations and the decisions of their future contributions. Social welfare organizations would also become aware of the importance of their disclosure practices. They are also aware of the fact that various interested parties expect the improvement of the transparency of their operations. Proper disclosures reduce the information asymmetry between external interested parties and managers and, therefore, improve accounting transparency. Realizing the importance of proper disclosures, tax laws require non-profit organizations with total assets greater than or equal to one billion won or revenues/donations greater than or equal to 500 million won file their annual reports with the National Tax Services’ Hometax System. As a result, the Hometax System allows general public to access the operating results, financial conditions, equity acquisition and sales schedule, key management, audit reports and other relevant information of non-profit organizations.