진화하는 핀테크에서의 과세 논점 ―크라우드펀딩, P2P 대출, 그리고 블록체인을 중심으로―

Fintech is understood to bridge the gap between financial services and technology and to represent innovation in financial technology today. There has recently been many discussions about the impact of the development of FinTech on the infrastructure, regulation and legal environment of startups and existing financial institutions, but relatively little discussion could be found on the tax implication of FinTech. Globally, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending(‘P2P lending’) have existed for more than a decade, but it's only been a few years since these schemes gained momentum as they do today. With respect of blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is still at the experimental level, it is a little bit fast to analyze the effect of the introduction of this new technology on the tax system. Nevertheless, given FinTech's unprecedented pace of development and the strong growth potential of crowdfunding and P2P lending, which are major players in fintech financial services, and blockchain technology, which is gaining a special attention from public, it would be quite meaningful to consider tax implications of them and their relevant tax issues. Crowdfunding is a system that attracts a lot of attention because it can provide financing and marketing from a corporation’s point of view, while offering reasonable compensation for sponsorship and tax deductions for investment from an investor's point of view. In order to promote a virtuous cycle of startup ecosystem in the 4th Industrial Revolution and to activate the employment creation effect of startups due to innovation growth, a clear tax system for crowdfunding should be established and tax preferential treatment for crowdfunding business needs to be diversified and expanded. With respect of P2P lending industry, which is currently the leading business of FinTech industry, the Korean government has so far not introduced any tax support to foster P2P financing, other than reducing withholding tax rate. However, as a new bill of institutionalizing P2P lending was recently approved by the National Assembly's Political Affairs Commission, the movement for incorporating P2P loans into the regular finance system has been accelerated. With this movement, significant easing of conventional strict regulations and introduction of preferential tax treatment are also anticipated. The technology provided by blockchain is a unique attraction for taxation authorities, which suffer from the scattering of information due to globalization and digitalization. The main characteristics of blockchain are 'transparency' and 'confidentiality', which are important factors as a prerequisite for the technology to be widely applied in the tax field. Regardless of jurisdiction, tax authorities in each country can enhance information exchange and tax collection cooperation through blockchain-based platform sharing. Furthermore, application of blockchain technology allows tax authorities to reduce their dependence on taxpayer-provided data and to secure independent and objective information in real time. Effective utilization of blockchain will most likely to improve the efficiency of tax administration and address practical problems concerning tax avoidance.