기부금 공제방식 변경이 개인소득자 기부에 미치는 영향

[Purpose] At the end of 2013, the government changed the method of deduction for donations due to the revision of the tax law for securing tax and tax equity. The main contents of the revision of the tax law are business income earners can cover business expenses from donations, and wage and salary income earners can receive tax credits for donations. [Methodology] This study examines how changes in tax benefits affect donations at the present time, five years after the revision. This study used panel data from the Korea Tax Finance Research Institute (51,234 data from 2008 to 2018). [Findings] The analysis results are as follows. First, the change in the deduction amount had a negative effect on the donation amount. Contributions from low－income earners with positive incentives are small compared to the overall percentage. For other earners, changing the deduction acts as a negative incentive. Second, the change in the donation deduction had a greater impact on the middle class than on the lower and upper income earners. Low－income earners don’t receive a large portion of donations, and high－income earners can receive more incentives through large donations. However, this is because the change in the income deduction method for the middle class acted as a factor in suppressing donations. Lastly, the change in donation deduction had a greater impact on wage earners than business income earners. Business income earners can apply the same donation incentive effect as income deduction through business expense inclusion, but wage and salary income earners can interpret the incentives through donation as reduced. [Implications] Changes in donation deductions increased tax revenues and equity between high and low income earners, but had a negative impact on donations. Governments will need additional efforts to promote donations.