进化中的金融科技与征税的问题:以众筹、P2P贷款以及区块链为中心

Evolution of FinTech and its Tax Implication——A Study on Crowdfunding,P2P Lending,and Blockchain

金融科技连接金融服务和金融技术之间的缝隙,当今的金融科技被理解为是金融技术领域的创新。近年来,有关金融科技发展对创业的影响、对现有金融机构基础业务的冲击、对规制和法律环境的影响等方面的研究层出不穷,但对税收制度的影响却少有研究。众筹和Peer-to-peer(P2P)贷款早在十多年前就已经存在,但这些制度能够获得目下趋势的发展,却是近几年发生的事情。由于区块链以及分布式账本技术(DLT)尚处于试验阶段,直接研究有关区块链或者分布式账本技术(DLT)对税收制度影响的时机还不成熟。然而,考虑到金融科技的空前发展速度和区块链的潜力以及广泛利用方面的态势,有必要剖析代表金融科技之金融服务典型的众筹、P2P贷款以及作为新技术的区块链技术,研究这些金融科技对征税的影响。从企业的立场来看,众筹能够一并完成融资和营销。从投资者的立场来看,众筹一方面可以获得合理的补偿,另一方面能够获得基于投资的税金抵扣。因此,从这一层面上来看,众筹是获得较多关注的制度。为了促进第四次工业革命时代中创业生态系统的良性循环,振兴创业企业在创新增长中创造就业机会,韩国有必要改善与众筹有关的税收制度,扩大对众筹企业和投资者的税收优惠措施。P2P贷款是金融科技产业的龙头。就P2P贷款行业而言,韩国政府仅仅降低了适格P2P金融(Peer-to-peer finance)的所得税代扣税率,没有特别引入支持P2P金融的税制。但是,随着最近P2P贷款相关法案在国会政务委员会法案审查第一小委员会接连通过,韩国正在加快将P2P贷款纳入制度范围之列。P2P贷款产业作为促进金融科技产业成长的必要要素,韩国很有可能大幅缓解针对适格P2P金融的规制,实施税收优惠措施作为其后续保障。因国际化、数字化导致的信息分散给税务机关造成了诸多麻烦,而区块链提供的技术将为税务机关引入与众不同的体验。区块链的主要特征是透明度和保密性,这是区块链技术能够在将来税收领域获得广泛应用的前提条件。各国的税务机关不论其管辖权如何,都可以通过基于区块链的共享平台,加强税收管理的信息交换和征收合作。此外,区块链技术的应用还可以减少税务机关对纳税人单方面提供资料的依赖程度,可以确保税务机关独立收集外部数据资料,使得实时收集外部客观信息的想法成为可能。如果能够有效利用区块链的优点,还可能改善实务中有关避税的问题,大幅提高税收管理的效率。

Fintech is understood to bridge the gap between financial services and technology and to represent innovation in financial technology today.There has recently been many discussions about the impact of the development of FinTech on the infrastructure,regulation and legal environment of startups and existing financial institutions,but relatively little discussion could be found on the tax implication of FinTech.Globally,Crowdfunding and Peer-to-peer lending(P2P lending)have existed for more than a decade,but it’s only been a few years since these financial services gained momentum.With respect to blockchain,or distributed ledger technology(DLT),which is still at the experimental level,it seems a bit fast to analyze the effect of the introduction of this new technology on the tax system.Nevertheless,given FinTech’s unprecedented pace of development and the strong growth potential of crowdfunding and P2P lending,which are major players in fintech financial services,and blockchain technology,which is gaining a special attention from public,it would be quite meaningful to consider tax implications of them and their relevant tax issues.Crowdfunding attracts a lot of attention because it can provide financing and marketing from a corporation’s point of view,while offering reasonable compensation for sponsorship and tax deductions for investment from an investor’s point of view.In order to promote a virtuous cycle of startup ecosystem in the 4 th Industrial Revolution and to activate the employment creation effect of startups due to innovation growth,a clear tax system for crowdfunding should be established and tax preferential treatment for crowdfunding business needs to be diversified and expanded.With respect of P2P lending,which is currentlya leading player in the FinTech industry,the Korean government has so far not introduced any tax support to foster P2P financing,other than reducing its withholding tax rate.However,as a new bill of institutionalizing P2P lending was recently approved by the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Commission,the movement for incorporating P2P loans into the regular finance system has been accelerated.With this movement,significant easing of conventional strict regulations and introduction of preferential tax treatment are also anticipated.The new technology provided by blockchain comes as a unique attraction for tax authorities,which suffer from the scattering of information due to globalization and digitalization.The main characteristics of blockchain are"transparency"and confidentiality",which are important factors as a prerequisite for the technology to be widely applied in the tax field.Regardless of jurisdiction,tax authorities in each country can enhance information exchange and tax collection cooperation through blockchainbased platform sharing.Furthermore,application of blockchain technology allows tax authorities to reduce their dependence on taxpayer-provided data and to secure independent and objective information in real time.Effective utilization of blockchain will most likely to improve the efficiency of tax administration and address practical problems concerning tax avoidance.