• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.207-237
• /
• 2009

One of the main problems in Korea's public assistance program, the NBLS (National Basic Livelihood Security), is that the loophole of welfare system is continuously growing. Living wage program is the largest sub-program of the NBLS, and the most important determinant of amount of living wage for each beneficiary is the level of reported income. Therefore, accurate and effective income detection is essential in improving policy effects and furthermore reducing the leakage of wage expenditure as beneficiaries always have an incentive to underreport their income. Since most of them do not pay income tax, the welfare authority should exert an independent effort to effectively detect their income. Considering that living wage is a special kind of income tax of which marginal tax rate is -1, one can apply a classical theory of tax evasion to understand illegal or excessive receipt of living wage caused by income underreporting. Utilizing a classical theory given by Alingham and Sandmo (1972), this paper provides a theoretical analysis of the optimal income reporting of the beneficiary. Then an optimization problem is constructed from the government's viewpoint to derive optimal income detecting device (auditing). This paper proves that cut-off discriminated auditing outperforms random auditing and cut-off auditing which implies if the government assigns a positive audit probability to every reported income less than a certain level and the probability is inversely proportional to the level of reported income, it can minimize underreporting and then gradually reduce the leakage of wage expenditure.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.137-151
• /
• 2020

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate whether financial analysts' cash flow forecasts mitigate the accrual anomaly. In addition, we examine whether the more accurate analysts' cash flow forecasts are the greater the decline of the accrual anomaly. Design/methodology/approach - Data used in the empirical tests are extracted through KIS-VALUE and FN-GUIDE, and the sample consists of firms listed on Korea Stock Exchange for 7 years from 2005 to 2011. We test the hypotheses using multiple regression analysis and we also estimate the regressions with the decile ranks of the explanatory variables to minimize the influence of outliers. Findings - We have failed to capture evidence that the provision of financial analysts' cash flow forecasts itself reduces the accrual anomaly. However, we find the accrual anomaly to be less severe when financial analysts provide more accurate cash flow forecasts. The findings are consistent in the regression models with the decile ranks as well as in the robustness tests that controlled the accruals quality. Research implications or Originality - This study contributes to the expansion of related studies in the Korea by providing empirical evidence partially that the financial analysts' cash flow forecasts mitigate the accrual anomaly.

• Korean small business review
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.85-102
• /
• 2009

With the continued globalization of world markets, transfer pricing has become one of the dominant sources of controversy in international taxation. Transfer pricing is the process by which a multinational corporation calculates a price for goods and services that are transferred to affiliated entities. Consider a Korean electronic enterprise that buys supplies from its own subsidiary located in China. How much the Korean parent company pays its subsidiary will determine how much profit the Chinese unit reports in local taxes. If the parent company pays above normal market prices, it may appear to have a poor profit, even if the group as a whole shows a respectable profit margin. In this way, transfer prices impact the taxable income reported in each country in which the multinational enterprise operates. It's importance lies in that around 60% of international trade involves transactions between two related parts of multinationals, according to the OECD. Multinational enterprises (hereafter MEs) exert much effort into utilizing organizational advantages to make global investments. MEs wish to minimize their tax burden. So MEs spend a fortune on economists and accountants to justify transfer prices that suit their tax needs. On the contrary, local governments are not prepared to cope with MEs' powerful financial instruments. Tax authorities in each country wish to ensure that the tax base of any ME is divided fairly. Thus, both tax authorities and MEs have a vested interest in the way in which a transfer price is determined, and this is why MEs' international transfer prices are at the center of disputes concerned with taxation. Transfer pricing issues and practices are sometimes difficult to control for regulators because the tax administration does not have enough staffs with the knowledge and resources necessary to understand them. The authors examine transfer pricing practices to provide relevant resources useful in designing tax incentives and regulation schemes for policy makers. This study focuses on identifying the relevant business and environmental factors that could influence the international transfer pricing of MEs. In this perspective, we empirically investigate how the management perception of related variables influences their choice of international transfer pricing methods. We believe that this research is particularly useful in the design of tax policy. Because it can concentrate on a few selected factors in consideration of the limited budget of the tax administration with assistance of this research. Data is composed of questionnaire responses from foreign firms in Korea with investment balances exceeding one million dollars in the end of 2004. We mailed questionnaires to 861 managers in charge of the accounting departments of each company, resulting in 121 valid responses. Seventy six percent of the sample firms are classified as small and medium sized enterprises with assets below 100 billion Korean won. Reviewing transfer pricing methods, cost-based transfer pricing is most popular showing that 60 firms have adopted it. The market-based method is used by 31 firms, and 13 firms have reported the resale-pricing method. Regarding the nationalities of foreign investors, the Japanese and the Americans constitute most of the sample. Logistic regressions have been performed for statistical analysis. The dependent variable is binary in that whether the method of international transfer pricing is a market-based method or a cost-based method. This type of binary classification is founded on the belief that the market-based method is evaluated as the relatively objective way of pricing compared with the cost-based methods. Cost-based pricing is assumed to give mangers flexibility in transfer pricing decisions. Therefore, local regulatory agencies are thought to prefer market-based pricing over cost-based pricing. Independent variables are composed of eight factors such as corporate tax rate, tariffs, relations with local tax authorities, tax audit, equity ratios of local investors, volume of internal trade, sales volume, and product life cycle. The first four variables are included in the model because taxation lies in the center of transfer pricing disputes. So identifying the impact of these variables in Korean business environments is much needed. Equity ratio is included to represent the interest of local partners. Volume of internal trade was sometimes employed in previous research to check the pricing behavior of managers, so we have followed these footsteps in this paper. Product life cycle is used as a surrogate of competition in local markets. Control variables are firm size and nationality of foreign investors. Firm size is controlled using dummy variables in that whether or not the specific firm is small and medium sized. This is because some researchers report that big firms show different behaviors compared with small and medium sized firms in transfer pricing. The other control variable is also expressed in dummy variable showing if the entrepreneur is the American or not. That's because some prior studies conclude that the American management style is different in that they limit branch manger's freedom of decision. Reviewing the statistical results, we have found that managers prefer the cost-based method over the market-based method as the importance of corporate taxes and tariffs increase. This result means that managers need flexibility to lessen the tax burden when they feel taxes are important. They also prefer the cost-based method as the product life cycle matures, which means that they support subsidiaries in local market competition using cost-based transfer pricing. On the contrary, as the relationship with local tax authorities becomes more important, managers prefer the market-based method. That is because market-based pricing is a better way to maintain good relations with the tax officials. Other variables like tax audit, volume of internal transactions, sales volume, and local equity ratio have shown only insignificant influence. Additionally, we have replaced two tax variables(corporate taxes and tariffs) with the data showing top marginal tax rate and mean tariff rates of each country, and have performed another regression to find if we could get different results compared with the former one. As a consequence, we have found something different on the part of mean tariffs, that shows only an insignificant influence on the dependent variable. We guess that each company in the sample pays tariffs with a specific rate applied only for one's own company, which could be located far from mean tariff rates. Therefore we have concluded we need a more detailed data that shows the tariffs of each company if we want to check the role of this variable. Considering that the present paper has heavily relied on questionnaires, an effort to build a reliable data base is needed for enhancing the research reliability.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.61-78
• /
• 2019

When calculating gains from transfers of assets inherited or donated, the value recognized at the market price as of the date of inheritance or acquisition is recognized as the actual transaction value at the time of acquisition. However, Precedents for the appeal for review by the NTS, the request for adjudgment by the Tax Tribunal(TT) and the request of examination by the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea(BAI) and the cases of the lawsuit have not shown a consistent results on how much such a the actual transaction value will be measured. This study investigates the operating state of the current tax appeal system using the statistical data of the TT, NTS, and BAI and cases of the lawsuit from 2008 to 2017, and suggests the Improvement of Capital Gains Tax Act on the transfer of inherited and donated property. As a result, total number of requested cases has diminished because cases of the pre-assessment review and the reconsideration appeal by the NTS have decreased steadily over the past decade, while the cases of the lawsuit and the administrative trials(the request for adjudgment by the TT, the appeal for review by the NTS, and the request of examination by the BAI) have been steadily increasing. Also This study found that more than 40% of the complainants proceeded with the cases of the lawsuit proceedings in disagreement with the disposition of tax dissatisfaction under the administrative trials. In addition, Even though the retrospective appraisal price is not recognized as the market price due to the strict interpretation of the tax regulations, it can be seen that it is interpreted as a more expanded concept in the application of the market price than the government office or the tax judge. Therefore, according to the precedents of the cases lawsuit, it is necessary to establish a regulation on the recognition of retroactive appraisal value.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.215-224
• /
• 2008

For global companies that are going to raise funds from international capital markets or to which lots of foreign investment are being given, it is necessary to prepare consolidated financial statements. This study provides the results of some analyses in accordance with the system of consolidated financial statements disclosure. First, disclosing those statements with audit opinion reflected would provide useful reliable and financial information. Second, such disclosure as foresaid would meet international standards that consolidated financial statements are used as main financial statements and separate financial statements as auxiliary ones. The disclosure system would make it possible for domestic corporations to introduce international accounting standards earlier, especially from 2009, in accordance with the road map of those standards. Third, the system of consolidated financial statements disclosure would play an important role in promoting the implementation of consolidated taxation systems under which corporate tax is levied in accordance with consolidated balance sheet.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.75-94
• /
• 2009

The process of obtaining third-party financing contacts was analyzed via a two-stage game model: a "signaling game" for the first stage,and a "principal-agent model" for the second stage. The two-stage game was solved by a process of backward induction. In the second stage game, the optimal effort level of the energy saving company (ESCO), the optimal compensation scheme of the energy user, and the optimal payoffs for both parties were derived for each subgame. The optimal solutions forthe different subgames were then compared with each other. Our main finding was that if there is some restriction on ESCO's revenue (e.g. a progressive sales tax) that causes ESCO's revenue toincrease at a decreasing rate, then the optimal sharing ratio is uniquely determined at a level of strictly less than one under a linear compensation scheme, i.e. a unique balance exists. Subgames have a unique equilibrium arrived at separately for each situation,. Within this equilibrium, energy users accept energy audit proposals from H-type ESCOs with high levels of technology, but reject proposals from L-type ESCOs with low levels of technology. While L-type ESCOs cannot attain profits in the third-party financing market, H-type ESCOS can pocket the price differential between L-type and H-type audit fees. Accordingly, revenues in an H-type ESCO equilibrium increase not only in line with the technology of the ESCO inquestion, but also faster than in an L-type equilibrium due to more advanced technology. At the same time, energy users receive some positive payoff by allowing ESCOs to perform third-party financing tasks within their existing energy system without incurring any extra costs.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.43-75
• /
• 2002

This study focuses on the factors that make the financial structure of hospitals in Korea different, and on recommended courses of action that could be very helpful to hospitals in maintaining a sound financial structure. Data used in this study were collected from 132 hospitals with complete general data of present conditions as well as financial statements. They were chosen from the 174 hospitals that passed the standardization audit undertaken by the Korean Hospital Association from 1996 to 2000 for the purpose of accrediting training hospitals. The dependent variable in this study is financial structure. It consists of liabilities as against total assets (total liabilities to total assets, short-term liabilities to total assets, long-term liabilities to total assets, short-term borrowings to total assets, long-term borrowings to total assets). The independent variables are ownership type, hospital type, location, whether or not a representative is a director of the hospital, the possibility of changing a hospital director, bed size, period of establishment, asset structure, profitability, growth, tax shields, business risk, competition. The factors that appear to have the strongest impact on the liabilities to total assets of all the hospitals sampled are ownership type, hospital type, profitability, tax shields, and business risk. It was found that not-for-profit private hospitals and for-profit private hospitals have more liabilities than public hospitals, and tertiary medical institutions have less liabilities than the secondary general hospitals. Moreover, hospitals earning more at the expense of high business risk have a distinct tendency to lower liabilities. Concerning the current ratio, it was found that factors such as ownership type, hospital type, period of establishment, asset structure, and business risk are the more significant variables. The current ratio of public hospitals is higher than that of both not-for-profit private hospitals and for-profit private hospitals, and the current ratio of tertiary medical institutions is higher than that of general hospitals. As business risk is higher in hospitals compared to other businesses, the current ratio becomes higher; this is because it is assumed that for fear of bankruptcy, hospitals lessen liabilities to total assets. On the other hand, as hospitals become older, the fixed assets to total assets become lower. It is remarkable that in hospitals, the factors affecting liabilities to total assets have an opposite regression coefficient sign against factors affecting current ratio. It brings out the same results borne out by the old financial theories and researches, in which a lot of the liabilities of hospitals are considered as the cause of worsening liquidity. Therefore, it is very important for hospitals to maintain a sound financial structure in order to survive using the rational acquisition and maintenance of capital.