고향사랑기부제 도입에 따른 주요 쟁점과 개선과제

After continuous discussions on the introduction of the hometown love donation system and efforts to legislate, the "Act on Home Love Donations" was enacted on October 19, 2021, and it has been in effect since January 1, 2023. The introduction of the system is expected to contribute to the expansion of local finances, revitalization of the local economy, and balanced national development amid the accelerating crisis of local extinction and intensifying concentration in the metropolitan area. Accordingly, this paper examined the legislative discussion and main contents of the "Hometown Love Donation Act", and reviewed various issues along with expectations for the hometown love donation system, suggesting improvement directions for achieving the essential purpose of the hometown donation system. In addition, through comparison and analysis with Japan's hometown tax system, which was introduced and implemented earlier than Korea, several suggestions were made for settling Korea's hometown love donation system. The hometown love donation system was introduced as part of responding to the crisis of local extinction due to the outflow of the local population, and it aims to provide a certain tax deduction for the donation amount along with return gifts. Local governments that have received donations will use them for projects to expand insufficient finances and improve residents' welfare. However, in order for the hometown love donation system to be settled early, there is a part that needs to be improved. First, it is necessary to ease excessive regulations such as restrictions on fundraising measures, upper limits on the amount of donations, and restrictions on donors and donations. Excessive regulations on fundraising methods act as considerable restrictions on encouraging potential donors to participate in donations in the early stages of the implementation of the system, which is not well-known for the hometown love donation system. In addition, regulations on the amount of donations, donors, and donation targets can act as a factor that makes donors hesitate to donate in light of the nature of the donation system. Next, local governments should strive to find return items that can draw interest from donors to the region. In addition, it is necessary to consider how to expand the "related population" in the development of return products to revitalize the local economy and use them as a way to overcome the crisis of local extinction by introducing them into the resident population. On the one hand, the lack of concern about business development using donations due to the competition for return products to attract donations can be pointed out as another improvement task. It is necessary to actively develop a donation utilization project that can elicit sympathy from donors to induce continuous donation participation and create a healthy donation culture. To this end, it will be possible to refer to the "crowdfunding-type hometown tax system" that presents specific donation utilization projects and collects donors for each project. In order to revitalize the hometown love donation system, it is necessary to increase the participation rate of donations by improving accessibility and convenience of donations. Currently, donations are received through "Hometown Love e-um," a comprehensive information system on designated financial institutions and hometown love donation systems, and considering regional accessibility variations and digital weaknesses, it is required to review the reception desk is required. In addition, efforts should be accompanied to continuously improve the convenience of donation by actively collecting opinions from donors on the improvement of the "hometown love e-eum" system. Fundamentally, efforts should be made to secure donations stably through understanding the hometown love donation system and spreading a healthy donation culture, and various ways should be sought to promote self-efficacy through donations, such as sharing the results of the donation utilization project. Finally, it is necessary to promote efficiency in the operation of the hometown love donation system by establishing relationships and cooperation systems between metropolitan and basic local governments. If the government relied on top-down methods such as the local fiscal adjustment system to resolve poor local finances and fiscal power gaps between local governments, the hometown love donation system can be evaluated as providing local governments with an opportunity to expand their finances in response to the deepening local extinction crisis. As it relies on individuals' willingness to donate, unnecessary regulations will be eased to encourage donation participation, and stable securing of donations through continuous system improvement efforts will be the key to establishing the system.