국제상속과세에 관한 연구 ―과세권 배분 및 이중과세 방지제도를 중심으로―

An important issue in the field of international inheritance taxation pertains to the allocation of taxing rights between countries and the prevention of double taxation. Given that the country of residence has the right to tax the property inherited worldwide, whereas the country in which the specific individual property is situated has the right to tax that property only, double taxation of single property is inevitable. Under the current system to prevent double taxation, the inheritance is taxed in the country in which it is situated and the inheritor subsequently is granted a corresponding foreign tax credit in the country in which he/she resides. Practically, however, double taxation does not cease to take place for a variety of reasons. To achieve the ​​efficiency and equity in the administration of international inheritance tax, double taxation must be prevented and, in the meantime, efforts should be exerted to preclude the aggregate worldwide inheritance tax burden from being heavier than the tax burden that would result from the presence of the inheritance and debts in the country that imposes the highest rate of inheritance tax among those in which the deceased had property and debts. As the representative cause of double taxation, under the current Inheritance Tax and Gift Tax Law (“IGTL”), debts are deductible from the value of property inherited only to the extent that they are secured by the property inherited, resulting in the assessment of inheritance tax that is heavier than appropriate in view of the value of the property inherited. To resolve such problem, debts should be recognized as deductible according to the country-by-country inheritance ratio as under the current US system. The maximum amount of available foreign tax credits is the same as the amount of inheritance tax payable, while tax imposed on the free transfer of wealth from the deceased to the inheritor is recognized as inheritance tax. However, it would be difficult to grant a foreign tax credit that corresponds to capital gains tax paid in a country that has abolished inheritance tax and assess capital gains tax only by treating it as inheritance tax. Finally, the IGTL provides personal deduction, but the maximum deductible amount is only KRW 2 million and such amount becomes trivial if the inheritor resides in Korea with almost the entire property inherited being situated in Korea. Expanding the scope of Korean residents that are eligible for personal deduction may be a possible solution, but it would be the more reasonable alternative to allow personal deductions according to the ratio of the property subject to limited taxation to the one subject to unlimited taxation as in Germany.