ETF증권 양도에 따른 현행 과세제도의 문제점

ETF(Exchange Traded Fund) securities introduced in July 2002 on the one hand are similar to trading stocks in the sense that are traded on the stock market, but on the other hand, it also can be seen as a kind of funds in that it is equity interest for a collective investment scheme. Due to the two-sided nature of the securities it comes into question how to tax the transfer of ETF securities. The current tax laws treat the transfer of the ETF securities differently depending on the legal form. Investment trust ETF securities is subject to taxation depending on whether invested assets is shares or other assets as follows ： ‘Equity ETF securities’ will be nontaxable at the time of the transfer, while ‘other ETF securities’ will be subjective to taxation on dividend income at the time of the transfer. Investment companies ETF securities will not be subject to taxation on capital gains at the time of the transfer, but the securities transaction tax will be levied. Meanwhile foreign ETF securities will be subjective not to taxation on dividend income alone but also the securities transaction tax at the time of the transfer. Due to such discrimination of taxation it is in a present situation where only investment trust ETF securities trade. Economically with the same functionality in the same way will be called as a reasonable tax system. We should choose whether to levy securities transaction tax or income tax on ETF securities or not. If we choose income tax, futhermore it is necessary to choose whether to levy income tax on the last holder not at the time of the transfer, or to levy dividend income tax or capital gain tax for each transfer point. Income tax system to consider the taxpayer’s ability to pay is considered as a more reasonable alternative. Among the income tax system, to tax the final holder is inappropriate way to apply for the ETF securities which have the performance-based dividend system, equally to tax dividend income tax on capital gain will be problematic. We oppose to take different methods of taxation on ETF securities depending on the nature of the ETF’s investment assets. Thus, it will be reasonable to levy not securities transaction tax but capital gains tax on the transfer of securities regardless of the legal form. In the long term, profits and losses due to funds investment should be treated equally in tax law by taxing total redemption and dividend of general collective investment schemes as capital gains.