In case that houses and buildings are old and poor in spite of good infrastructures, it is needed to take away old ones and reconstruct new ones on sites where old ones have been to improve the better housing condition. The Housing Reconstruction Proj...
In case that houses and buildings are old and poor in spite of good infrastructures, it is needed to take away old ones and reconstruct new ones on sites where old ones have been to improve the better housing condition. The Housing Reconstruction Project has been carried out for the reason as above and contributed to a solution on the shortage of houses in the limited city housing area, specially major cities such as Seoul, Busan, Deagu and so on. In processing a lot of Housing Reconstruction Projects, there have been many troubles about the taxation due to ambiguity about an interpretation of the nature of the Housing Reconstruction Association made up of the house owners who hope to build new ones and conflicting interests among the Housing Reconstruction association, a member of the association, a company which takes charge of the construction, a professional supervisor of the housing improvement and a local government.
The Housing Reconstruction Project had been controlled by the Act of Housing Construction Promotion and the taxation authority and the court had had a different point of view about the nature of the Housing Reconstruction Association -whether a taxation authority had to tax to each member of an association or tax to an association itself. Since July 1 2003, however, the enforcement of the Act of Urban and Housing Condition Improvement instead of the Act of Housing Construction Promotion has made discussions clear by forcing the Housing Reconstruction Association to register as the name of a given association and taxing an association itself. In addition, the Housing Reconstruction Association will have been regarded as a nonprofit organization by the Special Tax Treatment Control Law until December 31 2008. Still, another discussion remains, that is, whether the Housing Reconstruction Association is a nonprofit organization or for-profit organization.
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the realization of equal tax burden and efficient drive of the Housing Reconstruction Project by suggesting appropriate solutions and interpretations to problems described as above.
First, a nature of the Housing Reconstruction Association as a taxpayer must be reviewed ahead to study tax system of the Housing Reconstruction Association. The Act of Urban and Housing Condition Improvement enacts that the Housing Reconstruction Association itself has the juridical personality, therefore, the argument about this problem is solved legislatively but
another argument is if the Housing Reconstruction Association can be regarded as a nonprofit organization. The Special Tax Treatment Control Law § 104-7 (2) enacts that the Housing Reconstruction Association will have been a nonprofit organization for taxation until December 31 2008. Yet, it is likely that the Law sees the Association as a nonprofit organization not because it is non-profit in nature but because there is a certain purpose to be realized in the housing policy.
It is reasonable to view the Housing Reconstruction Association as a for-profit organization legally because most of profits from it's business revert to members of the Housing Reconstruction Association in the ratio of investments despite the rule above.
Second, Solutions about the Corporation Tax problem on the Association are as follows.
With regard to the calculation of profits, members' additional expenses should not be included to profits because they are not profits under the Special Tax Treatment Control Law. It is important to decide when profits of the distribution are recognized for determining reverting time of profits and the standard of it is the time when the housing construction is completed.
With regard to the calculation of losses, the acquisition date of sites invested in kind by members should be the date when the operation of the project is approved. It is objective and reasonable that the tax authorities use not only the actual transacting price in principal but also the appraised price by an expert and individual price announced publicly in supplementary.
In addition to suggestions above, the price of an old house taken away should be included the losses because members invest house buildings as well as sites in kind and the investment still remains despite the removal of buildings.
Third, the current Income Tax Law has not imposed the Capital Gain Tax on the house which is distributed to its members in return for the investment in kind by the Association because that house is regarded as the land substitution. However, arguments against the contents of the Law still remain.
It is reasonable that the special deduction should be allowed for members who have possessed an old house for a long time in certain case that the right to move into new house is thought of as a new house, that members be able to claim a right to move into new house-especially relating to the transfer of that right- on the date of the approval of the Disposal Plan, and that the period of possession be counted from on the date of the acquisition of an old house to on the date of the transfer of a new house.
Fourth, There are two suggestions about the Acquisition Tax related to the Housing Reconstruction. First, if the Housing Reconstruction Association acquires construction sites from its member as an investment in kind, it is not proper that the tax authority impose the Acquisition Tax on the sites which the Association acquires for the use of sales not to its members but to a certain customer, considering the intent of the law of the Local Tax Law §105 (10) and a proviso of §110 (ⅰ), and systemic interpretation between two texts. Second, according to the Local Tax Law §105 (10), it is proper for the tax authority to impose the Acquisition Tax and the Registration Tax on members of the Association who acquires a new house. A standard of taxation is the actual acquisition cost that is composed of construction costs and incidental expenses.
Fifth, the Value-added Tax(VAT) has to be taxed to services concerned with the housing construction. The Special Tax Treatment Control Law have not taxed VAT to it because the Law doesn't think the supply of apartment buildings beyond the Nation House Scale-an appropriate house size for people in middle class- as services concerned with the housing construction. However, the supply of apartment buildings beyond the Nation House Scale is an offer of services apparently, so the VAT has to be taxed to it. If there is a special agreement among the Housing Reconstruction association, a member of the association and a company which takes charge of the construction concerning the VAT burden, the VAT will be taxed to one of them according to it. On the other hand, if there is not any agreement among them, it is reasonable that the final consumer, a member of the association pay for the VAT because the final consumer has to pay the VAT principally.