방송수신료의 법적 성격과 제도적 쟁점

With the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Broadcasting Act in July 2023, the discussion on the broadcasting license fee system was reignited. As the Constitutional Court decided that both the contents of the enforcement ordinance and the process of revising the enforcement ordinance on May 30, 2024, were constitutional, the discussion on the broadcasting license fee system itself seems to be subsiding, but social confusion is accelerating as broadcasting license fees, which were collected by integrating with electricity fees, are separately collected. In particular, due to the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Public Housing Management Act, the collection entity of broadcasting license fees in public housing regulated by the same Act has been confirmed as the management entity, but the actual collection entity of broadcasting license fees for collective buildings and detached houses that are not regulated by the same Act is still confused. They opposed the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Public Housing Management Act, saying that the management entities of public housing and collective buildings pass on the collection of license fees that the Korea Broadcasting Corporation had to bear. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to look back on the Korean broadcasting license fee system. Through the decision of the Constitutional Court in 2024, the legal nature of broadcasting license fees is special assessments, and the requirements for the special assessments to be constitutionally justified are met, and the existing Constitutional Court's position that collection methods such as integrated notification of license fees are not included in important matters that legislators must regulate by law has remained the same. It is questionable whether the Constitutional Court's attitude to maintain the position of 1998 without changing at all, especially at a time when the media environment is changing and the way people enjoy broadcasting culture is rapidly changing. It is difficult to agree on the position that the issue of the collection method is not an important matter in the broadcasting license fee system. Depending on which collection method is taken, the license fee income, which is an important resource of the Korea Broadcasting Corporation, fluctuates greatly, so the collection method needs to be viewed as an essential component of the license fee system. In terms of legal stability, it is also desirable to regulate this in the form of a law as much as possible through legislative decisions. It is also necessary to reconsider whether to maintain the license fee system in the form of special assessments. Comparatively, most of the countries that operated the license fee system in the form of special assessments, except for Japan, the UK, Germany, Japan, and France, are considering or implementing the abolition of the license fee system and the introduction of special taxes. France abolished the license fee itself and supported public broadcasting with VAT, while Germany operates a broadcasting charge that has been renamed from the license fee, but its actual nature can be viewed as a tax, and the UK decided to abolish it after March 2028. As the cause of the above change, it is commonly suggested that there is no special relevance or validity to charge a license fee to a person who owns a TV receiver, and that there is no need to reduce unnecessary administrative costs to charge a license fee based on the TV receiver. In Korea, the above problems occur similarly, so it is necessary to abolish the license fee system as special assessments and subsidize the financial resources of public broadcasting through taxes and funds. In the process, the process of securing the independence of the Korea Broadcasting Corporation and seeking public understanding on the taxation of license fees should precede. Meanwhile, as the amendment to the Broadcasting Act passed the National Assembly on December 26, 2024, the integrated collection system for license fees was reintroduced as a law. However, as it is necessary to redesign the new license fee system suitable for the changing media environment, it is necessary to continuously discuss and reach an agreement with legislators and followers on the license fee system.