경제적 실질을 반영한 다국적기업 자금통합관리의 정상가격 산정에 관한 소고 - 예금거래, 대출거래, 보증거래별 구분기준을 중심으로 -

Multinational enterprises faced severe liquidity difficulties during the 2008 global financial crisis. As a countermeasure, multinational enterprises choose cash pooling to consolidate and manage their funds into specific administrator accounts in order to minimize surplus funds and reduce funding costs. This quantitative increase in inter-company financial transactions of multinational enterprises has affected the global financial market, and there has also been a lively discussion in the international tax sector as well about the transfer price of inter-company financial transactions. In major countries, cash pooling is recognized as a system to effectively manage funds and the taxation system is in place, but this is not so in Korea. This raises uncertainty about fund management for multinational enterprises and lowers predictability about taxation, thereby raising the possibility that multinational enterprises will leak funds out of Korea through dividends. This article reviewed the basic structure and features of cash pooling of multinational enterprises, and the transfer price of cash pooling in Germany, Austria, France and the United Kingdom. This article then presented by type the criteria for determining the transfer price of cash pooling compared to existing financial transactions, i.e., inter-company deposit transactions, loan transactions and guarantee transactions. Based on these criteria, this article proposed an improvement plan to set a standard for taxation on cash pooling. First, it is necessary to prepare to amend or establish a new domestic law concerning cash pooling in line with the revision guidelines for transfer prices of OECD financial transactions. Second, if the taxation authorities do not consider the economic substance and judge all cash pooling transactions only as a financial loan transaction, it does not comply with the purpose of adopting cash pooling in Foreign Exchange Transaction Regulations. It is also necessary to review the limit on the amount of cash pooling. Third, the taxation authorities should determine transfer price and prepare taxation standards for cash pooling by separating inter-company deposit, loan and guarantee transactions according to the purpose and economic substance of participating companies.