과세당국의 사전안내문이 납세자와 세무대리인의 의사결정에 미치는 영향

Tax authorities typically use enforcement measures such as tax audits or penalties to enhance taxpayer compliance. However, since 2010, the Korean tax authority has encouraged voluntary compliance by sending taxpayers pre-notices for their tax return filings. This study examines the impact of these pre-notices on the tax-compliance decisions of taxpayers and tax preparers in Korea. In particular, this study compares the effects of notices that emphasize the power of the government and notices that encourage voluntary tax compliance based on taxpayers’ trust in the tax authority. A 3×2 between-subjects experiment involving Korean taxpayers and tax preparers and a hypothetical tax-reporting case was performed. The first variable, the contents of the notices, was manipulated with two levels：focusing on enforced compliance by emphasizing the power of the tax authority (e.g., tax audits or penalties) vs. focusing on voluntary cooperation by encouraging taxpayers’ trust in the authority. The second variable, the color of the text in the notices, was manipulated with two levels：red font vs. blue font. Analysis of the data showed that the reported income rate increased after receiving the notices. Text color had no significant effect on tax compliance, whereas the reported income rate increased significantly when the content of the notice emphasized the power of the tax authority. These findings fail to confirm arguments that voluntary cooperation by taxpayers may improve tax compliance and imply that the emphasis on punishment in current tax authority policies plays a more important role in increasing tax compliance. Although this study does not observe voluntary taxpayer compliance through trust in the tax authority, further research on voluntary compliance is needed to reach more general conclusions for tax compliance.