디지털 전환에 따른 새로운 공과금 유형에 대한 고찰

Through digital transformation, efficiency can be improved throughout industry and life, and quantitative growth can be promoted. It has brought not only convenience to human life, but also profound changes in the structure of society and the economy. It cannot be said that the perspective of labor and profit creation and taxation in the traditional sense has lost its validity. But one of the task of law and politics in the era of digital transformation is to think about how to view new forms of profit that cannot be resolved through the traditional discussion of public utility bills and, if necessary, explore the possibility of taxation. New financial resources are needed to respond to the side effects that intelligent information technology may trigger and to allow the technology to settle in society more flexibly. First, discussion of a robot tax was raised, that robots should pay the same level of taxes if they do the same work, just as ordinary workers pay income tax. However, in order to make the robot tax a reality, it is necessary to consider whether securing a stable tax revenue or direct response to current issues is important, depending on the decision of the policy decision maker. A special taxation that imposes a special sales or property tax on owners of intelligent information technology systems, including artificial intelligence, can be considered. But there is a contradiction in that punitive taxation is imposed on actions that improve productivity through the introduction of technology. A digital tax that taxes multinational companies based on devices can also be considered. Although it has the advantage of overcoming the limitations of the existing taxation system and becoming a sales calculation method suitable for the digital era, there are also concerns that it will discourage companies from expanding their digital services and reduce their efforts to develop technology. An alternative to reorganizing the social insurance system is also being proposed. A new form of social insurance is created to provide financial resources to cover damages caused by intelligent information technology entities. Lastly, considering that data is a good that creates added value, the introduction of a data tax that recovers the portion of such added value that belongs to the information subject in the form of a utility fee can also be considered. From robot taxes to data taxes, there are no complete discussions or policies. Nevertheless, I hope that through continued discussion and debate on new types of taxation methods, we will be able to find solutions that can respond to changes in human society.