OTT구독료 소득공제 도입 논의와 타당성 검토

Abstract

Since the income deduction system for the expense amount of credit cards and cash receipts was first introduced at 「Restriction of Special Taxation Act」 in Korea, the benefits have also been expanded for traditional market use, public transportation use, and cultural expenditure. In particular, the cultural expense income deduction included the purchase of books and newspapers, ticket payment for performance halls and museums, and the purchase of movie tickets from July this year. In addition, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ordered research services to incorporate OTT monthly subscriptions into credit card deductions as cultural expenses, and the National Assembly proposed a partial revision to the 「Restriction of Special Taxation Act」 in July this year. This is because tax cuts on OTT subscription fees can help not only promote people's cultural life but also secure the competitiveness of the OTT industry.
 Tax reductions should be able to take effective measures to achieve the policy objectives pursued by the government, along with a close review of the effects of each income class from the perspective of tax egalitarianism. However, the current credit card income deduction system aims to reveal the tax base of businesses rather than reduce the tax burden on the people, and there is a limit to continuously and stably operating the system due to the limitation of the sunset period under the 「Restriction of Special Taxation Act」.
 Therefore, tax cuts for OTT subscriptions should be legislated in consideration of the improvement of the system to maintain the current cultural expense deduction in preparation for the reduction or abolition of credit card income deductions in the future. In the long run, it is necessary to consider revising the 「Income Tax Act」 etc, not the 「Restriction of Special Taxation Act」, to introduce tax benefits for cultural expenditures as special tax credits or to designate them as VAT exemptions. On the other hand, tax cuts for companies should also be designed to benefit from the revitalization of the cultural content industry. However, in order to prevent tax avoidance of overseas companies, it is necessary to incorporate it into a system that can manage the sales of OTT subscriptions of the operator, such as the current cultural expense income deduction system used by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.