部分그로스업制度의 導入과 調達源泉別 資本費用

Partial Gross-up System and the Cost of Capital by Source of Financing in Korean Corporate Sector

Korea replaced a regressive dividend tax credit system by a one third gross-up system in 1990. One of the major objective of such reform was to correct the distortionary incentive structure embedded in the Korean tax system that favored debt financing relative to equity financing. This paper aims at evaluating the capital cost effect of the reform and other related changes that were made in the same year. A typical user cost of capital model with corporation and personal income tax parameters was adopted. From this analysis we found: (1) The differences in the cost of capital among alternative sources of financing were significantly reduced after the 1990 reform resulting in a reduction of distortionary effects in corporate financing behavior. This result, however, did not stem form the introduction of the gross-up system. Abolition of the defense surtaxes, which reduced the effective marginal retes of both corporate and personal income taxes, was the main source of such changes in the cost of capital structure. (2) The introduction of the new system did not reduce significantly the average level of the cost of capital. (3) Korea has relatively small room to improve the incentive structure in corporate financing by increasing the gross-up rate.