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korean management review - Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 177-211
Abbreviation: kmr
ISSN: 1226-1874 (Print)
Print publication date 29 Feb 2016
Received 20 Jul 2015 Revised 02 Oct 2015 Accepted 15 Dec 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2016.45.1.177
The Effects of Prepayment Position and Tax Audit Probability on Judgment and Decision Making of Tax Professionals
Ju-Young Park* ; Tae-Sup Shim**
*Ph.D. in Taxation, Graduate School of Science in Taxation, University of Seoul, First Author
**Professor, Graduate School of Science in Taxation, University of Seoul, Corresponding Author
중간예납상황과 세무조사가능성이 세무전문가의 판단 및 의사결정에 미치는 영향
박주영* ; 심태섭**
*(주저자) 서울시립대학교 세무전문대학원 세무학박사, 공인회계사 (cpayoungi@empas.com)
**(교신저자) 서울시립대학교 세무전문대학원 교수 (tsshim@uos.ac.kr)
Funding Information ▼ University of Seoul

As the financial conditions from all over the world sharply worsened due to the increase in demand about the welfare and international depression, it became important to ensure that public finances corresponding to this. The interest about the plan that can improve the tax compliance of the taxpayer such as legalizing the underground economy with the solution about this matter is rising. The various uncertainties can exist due to the ambiguity of the Tax law and complexity in order to fulfill the liability to pay taxes. This uncertainty can have an effect on the good-faith filing of the taxpayer.

This study has estimated the effect of the withholding tax adjustment on the taxpayers’ tax compliance. The tax professionals were selected for test subjects, for most of tax determinations for individual businesses are made by them. And since the tax audit probability by taxation authorities affects the decision-making for taxation, the tax audit probability has been added as a treatment variable. The purpose of this research is to figure out what effect the interim prepayment by taxpayers and the tax audit probability by taxation authorities have on tax professionals’ decision-making.

The reviews of Prospect Theory and Regulation Theory enable the anticipation of what effect the amount of interim prepaid tax amount has on the final tax determination. The former argues that individuals act based on the situation-dependent value function measured as gain or loss from the reference point. Concretely speaking, in an uncertain situation, they show aggressiveness in a loss-situation and conservativeness in a gain-situation based on each reference point. Most of studies employing Prospect Theory applied taxpayers’ prepayment position for analyses with the subjects of taxpayers or students. That is, as seen at the anticipation by Prospect Theory, there exists the possibility for the interim prepayment position to have some effects on the final tax decision-making. However, since it is not clear if the situation of taxpayers’ interim prepayment may be the reference point for decision-making, the anticipation of Prospect Theory may not hold any validity.

On the other hand, according to Regulation Theory, regulations bring regulated parties some benefit and since the tax professionals, who are regulated groups, have the capability to interpret tax law as the benefit to taxpayers and offer services with diverse scopes as well as negotiate with taxation authorities, they show an aggressive tendency in an ambiguous situation. Due to these traits of tax professionals, there is the possibility that the decision-making by tax professionals may not be affected by whether taxpayers are in an situation where they have to make additional payment or they are supposed to be refunded based on the amount of interim prepayment. Like this, there co-exist two possibilities that the interim prepayment position may have some effect on the final tax determination based on Prospect Theory or not on the ground of Regulation Theory.

With experimental method, tax professionals working at accounting firms, tax corporations and private accounting offices were asked to make decisions in virtual taxation situations related to the appropriation of the necessary expenses for damages. For hypothesis testing, the interim prepayment position(balance-due position vs. refund position) and the tax audit probability (low vs. high) have been divided into two levels to be designed as the total of 4 groups.

This study has found out that while at the decision-making for appropriating necessary expenses for damages both the customers’ prepayment position and the tax audit probability were influenced as anticipated, only the tax audit probability was statistically significant. The study subjects were selected “private business income earners” whose interim prepayment amount can be adjusted and due to the high dependence on tax professionals. The difference of test subjects may result in the conclusions different from those of preceding researches with taxpayers as the subjects. Moreover, the conclusion is likely to be drawn that since from the taxpayers’ position it may be unclear if the reference point at Prospect Theory is any prepayment position and again because from the tax professionals’ total tax payment can be considered to be more important than the interim prepayment amount, the interim prepaid tax amount has no effect on the decision-making by tax professionals. However, since the conclusion has been drawn that unlike in taxpayers’ prepayment position the tax professionals consider any tax audit probability when they make any decision, it can be utilized as an effective measure controlling tax professionals.

These study results indicate there may exist the possibility that when taxpayers’ prepayment position is turned to the refund position, the anticipation for tax compliance to be improved may be wrong even if the difference among test subjects and reference points is to be taken into consideration.

Since this study with the application of the existing Prospect Theory suggest the results different from those of most other researches, it is necessary to be complemented through additional researches with various test subjects and reference points considered for its generalization. In addition, since this research has been carried out with experimental methods, it can’t help having the limitations. Even though the tax professionals should have been tested in the controlled environments of certain time and space for higher internal validity, the realistic restraints made it inevitable to carry out the tests with questionnaires. Consequently, the perfect control of environments was not possible. Furthermore, besides the control variables employed at this study, those factors which may affect on the judgment and decision-making of tax professionals might have been omitted. Therefore, there will take care to generalize the results of this study.

정부는 최근 “연말정산 세금폭탄” 논란과 관련해 근로소득자에 대한 원천징수세액을 스스로 결정하게 하는 정책을 도입하였는데, 과연 이러한 정책이 납세자의 조세순응을 향상시킬지는 분명하지 않다. 이에 본 연구에서는 프로스펙트 이론(prospect theory)에 근거해 원천징수상황이 납세자의 조세순응에 어떠한 영향을 미칠 것인가를 파악하고자 한다. 이를 위하여 현재 우리나라의 원천징수상황을 반영하여 원천징수세액 및 최종 결정세액의 조정가능성이 있는 개인 사업자소득자에 대한 가상적 사례를 이용하여 개인사업자의 세무업무를 처리하는 세무대리인을 대상으로 설문지를 이용한 현장실험을 하였다. 우리나라의 경우 개인사업자에 대한 세금결정은 많은 경우 세무대리인에 의하여 이루어지므로, 본 연구에서는 실험대상을 세무대리인으로 설정하였다. 그리고 세무에 대한 의사결정의 경우 세무당국의 세무조사가능성이 영향을 미치기에, 세무조사가능성도 관심변수로 추가하였다. 이에 본 연구는 “납세자의 중간예납상황과 세무당국의 세무조사가능성이 세무전문가의 세무관련 의사결정에 미치는 영향”을 파악하는 것을 연구의 목적으로 하였다.

실험방법을 이용하여 회계법인, 세무법인, 개인회계사무소에 근무하는 세무대리인을 대상으로 고객의 중간예납상황(추가납부상황 vs. 환급상황)과 세무조사 가능성(낮음 vs. 높음)을 모두 두 가지 수준으로 조작하여 총 4개의 집단으로 설계한 후, 손해배상금 필요경비 계상과 관련된 가상의 세무 상황에서 의사결정을 수행하도록 하였다. 중간예납상황은 프로스펙트 이론에 따라 최종 세무의사결정에 영향을 미칠 가능성과 규제이론에 따라 세무전문가의 의사결정에 영향을 미치지 못할 가능성이 있다. 본 연구의 실험결과 세무전문가의 손해배상금 필요경비 계상에 대한 의사결정 시 고객의 선납상황(중간예납상황)과 세무조사가능성 모두 예상한 방향으로 영향을 받았으나, 세무조사가능성만이 통계적으로 유의적이었다.

본 연구의 결론과 납세자의 선납상황에 대한 기존연구의 결론이 다른 이유는 여러 가지로 추정할 수 있다. 우선, 세무의사결정에 대한 준거점이 정확히 어느 금액인지 분명하지 않다. 이에 따라 납세자 입장에서도 프로스펙트 이론상의 준거점이 중간예납세액을 고려한 선납상황인지가 불분명할 수 있고, 세무대리인 입장에서는 중간예납세액보다는 총납부세액에 대한 고려가 더 중요할 수 있으므로 중간예납세액이 세무전문가의 의사결정에 영향을 미치지 않는다는 결론이 도출되었을 가능성이 있다. 또한 실험대상을 세무대리인으로 하였기에, 납세자를 상대로 한 기존 선행연구들과 다른 결론을 가져왔을 수 있다. 그러나 납세자의 선납상황과 달리 세무대리인들은 의사결정시 세무조사가능성을 고려한다는 결론이 도출되었으므로 이를 세무전문가에 대한 효과적인 통제수단으로 활용할 수 있을 것이다.

본 연구의 결론에 따르면 프로스펙트 이론에 근거해 과도한 원천징수로 납세자의 선납상황을 환급상황으로 만들 경우 조세순응이 향상될 것이라는 예측은 잘못 되었을 가능성이 존재한다. 이러한 연구결과에 따르면 최근 정부가 도입한 근로소득자의 원천징수액결정 방식의 전환은 납세자의 납세의사결정 및 조세순응에 영향을 미칠 가능성이 적다. 본 연구를 통해 중간예납세액이 세무전문가의 의사결정에 미치는 영향을 파악할 수 있으므로 추후 원천징수세액에 대한 정책수립 시 본 연구의 결과를 활용할 수 있을 것이다.