명의신탁부동산에 대한 취득세 납세의무 - 대법원 2018. 3. 22. 선고 2014두43110 판결 -

The Act on the Registration of real estate under actual titleholder’s name, which was enacted under the goal of restraining property speculation and establishing tax justice, nullifies the registration of nominal trusts and imposes administrative sanctions and criminal penalties on them. We have a lot to discuss about the operation of the law itself, but it also provides a range of debate on the formation of the acquisition tax as local tax. In case of registration of nominal trust, who is the taxpayer, truster or trustee? The issue of acquisition tax should be handled separately because the law did not provide all types of trusts. Our case law has given answers to the acquisition tax by its type. The most complicated problem is whether to use the acquisition activity or registration as the standard in the case of a trust registered in a three-way register. The Supreme Court case in 2018 was judged based on the former stnadard and solved the problem of double tax payment. In spite of the clearness, the objection did not help conclusively taxpayers’ remedy. There is a fundamental limitation that this problem can not be solved by legislation. Therefore, we have to present a more convincing argument to establish the case theory for each type of trust. The further study for this issue is expected.