종합부동산세법에 관한 헌법재판소 결정 평석 및 개정에 관한 검토

Review of the Constitutional Court’s Decision Concerning the Comprehensive Real Estate Tax Law

The Constitutional Court judged the comprehensive real estate tax partly unconstitutional on Nov. 13, 2008. Comprehensive real estate tax has been imposed on owners with properties worth about 600 million won, starting from 2005. In this case, the Constitutional Court decided that the provision on the comprehensive real estate tax that stipulates aggregate taxation of households based on the method of taxing comprehensive real estate taxes violates Article 36(1) of the Constitution, which ensures people's marriage and family life, and that the provision which provides for imposition of progressively levied comprehensive real estate taxes that are established at a higher rate than the separately charged property taxes on households exceeding certain values does not conform to the Constitution. However, the Court also ruled that the comprehensive real estate tax system itself, including the imposition of comprehensive real estate taxes on the subjected lands, does not violate the Constitution. With the Constitutional Court’s decision that the comprehensive real estate tax law is partially unconstitutional, amendment of the law has become inevitable. As controversy rages over the direction of that amendment, some even seem to be using the court’s verdict as an excuse to suggest effectively abolishing the comprehensive real estate tax altogether. That would be absurd. The Constitutional Court recognized that the basic tenor of the law and the goals of its legislation were constitutional. They also decided that the assessment criteria and tax rate were not excessive. If the gist of this decision is to be preserved, amendment of the law must be in the direction of maintaining and strengthening the tax’s efficacy.