비연속적 취득세율의 주택시장에 대한 효과 분석

취득세율의 비연속성이 주택시장 거래에 미치는 효과를 분석한다.

Houses purchased in Korea at prices above 0.6 billion won or 0.9 billion won are subject to higher tax rates imposed on the full value of the transaction. This policy generates discontinuities (“thresholds”) in the overall tax liability. Based on Kopczuk and Munroe (2014), we analyze theoretically the effects of the discontinuities in the housing market. We show that a higher tax rate above a threshold results in substantial bunching in transaction on the threshold as well as a reduction in transaction volume above it. The reduction in transaction volume is large just above the threshold and then gradually decreases as the price goes up from the threshold.

The tax burdens that buyers shift to sellers is generally larger when the seller’s bargaining power is bigger and when the difference of reservation prices between buyers and sellers is bigger. The seller’s tax burden is very large just above the threshold because the house price will go down to it after tax. The analysis of the housing transaction data set of Seoul, Korea during 2011-2013 confirms the results that the theoretical model leads to. Based upon the analysis, we propose a proportional tax to improve economic efficiency and to reduce distortion in the distribution of tax burdens.