2019년 국세기본법 판례회고

This article introduces and reviews the most noticeable seven of the Supreme Court’s decisions in 2019 related to the Framework Act on National Taxes. The Supreme Court ruled in case＜2018DU36110＞dated May 16, 2019 that the expansion of secondary tax liability of oligopolistic stockholders is not allowed due to purposes of related articles and the principle of the strict interpretation of tax laws. This judgement provided a clear guideline regarding the boundary of tax liability of oligopolistic stockholders. Regarding penalty taxes, the Supreme Court ruled that the filing and payment were legitimate even though the information of the donor was wrongly reported, which resulted that the penalties on the filing and payment were not legal in case＜2017DU68417＞dated July 11, 2019. Furthermore, in another case of＜2018DU34848＞dated May 16, 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the penalties on the wrong filing and payment, which was based on wrong income classification for tax evasion, were not legitimate and thus, ineffective. Some noteworthy decisions are considered necessary to be reviewed for specific cases where relevant legal principles were applied, although they were based on the previous rulings. First, the Supreme Court ruled in case ＜2017DU38645＞dated July 4, 2019 that a collection disposition was legitimate when only the tax rate was wrong on the notification of tax payment and also when income payers were liable to collect withholding taxes from foreign corporations when a contract deposit was substituted for a penalty for breach of the contract. In another case＜2015DU3591＞dated March 28, 2019, the Supreme Court determined that if oligopolistic stockholders were liable for acquisition taxes based on substantial control over the corporation although there was not any agreement or legal restriction on stockholders’ right or transfer of stocks. In addition, the Supreme Court determined the substantial taxpayer based on the substance-over-form principle when the nominee of income was different from the substantial owner of the income in case ＜2015DU55844＞dated October 17, 2019, and it judged the limit of re-deposition under adjudication of the Tax Tribunal according to the identity of ground fact in case＜2017DU75873＞dated January 31, 2019.