일본의 수익자연속형신탁에 관한 상속세 및 증여세 과세관계 연구

This study examines the inheritance and gift tax imposed on the beneficiary-consecutive trust in Japan, identifies existing challenges, proposes potential improvements, and draws implications applicable to the Korean tax system. Japan comprehensively revised its Trust Act in 2006 and subsequently introduced a new trust taxation framework in 2007. Japanese tax law deems the trust property as belonging to the person who has the beneficial interest in the trust, thus imposing transfer tax upon the acquisition of beneficial interests and taxing the trust income directly to the beneficiary. Under the Japanese Trust Act, beneficiary-consecutive trustd refer to testamentary trusts under Article 91 of the Act and trusts with the right to designate a beneficiary under Article 89(1) of the Act. The Japanese Inheritance Tax Act extends the definition of beneficiary-consecutive trusts to include cases where a beneficial interest is extinguished due to events such as the beneficiary’s death, and a new beneficiary subsequently acquires this interest. The taxation for beneficiary-consecutive trusts under the Japanese Inheritance Tax Act imposes gift tax or inheritance tax at the establishment of the trust and upon subsequent acquisition of beneficial interests. In particular, during valuation of a preceding beneficiary’s interest in a beneficiary-consecutive trust, the value of the subsequent beneficiary’s interest is overlooked, resulting in double taxation. Additionally, for beneficiary-consecutive trusts with layered beneficial interests, the principal beneficial interest is assessed at zero (0), resulting in undervalue relative to market value. To address these issues, Japanese scholars have proposed several improvements, such as deducting the subsequent beneficiary’s interest when valuing preceding interests, taxing income distributions directly when they occur, and imposing tax on the first beneficiary with subsequent adjustments. The Korean Inheritance Tax and Gift Tax Act also introduced similar regulations for beneficiary-consecutive trusts in its 2020 revision. However, similar to Japan, issues such as the valuation of beneficial interests, clarity in the rights transfer process, and appropriate timing for the imposition of gift tax still remain. Therefore, the research on the taxation system for beneficiary-consecutive trusts in Japan has significant implications for improving the Korean tax system.