지방자치단체 세입 자율성 연구 : 재산세 비중과 재정자립도 관계 분석

지방자치단체 세입 자율성과 재산세 비중·재정자립도의 관계를 분석했다.

Many advanced countries have promoted decentralization to establish a market economy, economic growth, increase regional diversity, and cooperative relations between the central and local governments in accordance with changes in social and political situations. In Korea, local autonomy was revived in 1991 following this trend, and starting from the participatory government, decentralization was set as a national task, and it became a dominant atmosphere to include strengthening decentralization as a government policy direction.

Although successive governments have created and implemented many policies for decentralization, the issue of the lack of quality in local finance continues to be raised. This is because the ratio of local taxes to national taxes remains unchanged at 7:3, and dependence on the central government is intensifying, with transfer funds supported by the central government such as grant taxes and subsidies accounting for about 50% of local government finances.

Therefore, this study focused on tax autonomy of local governments to promote fiscal decentralization, which is a prerequisite for decentralization, and used the degree of financial independence as a dependent variable and a measure of financial decentralization. In addition, by using property tax, which is the most genuine local tax among local tax items, as an independent variable, we set as a research question how the change in the proportion of property tax in local tax affects the level of financial independence, which is the level of financial decentralization, for empirical analysis.

Existing studies have also analyzed the relationship with various variables such as local tax, population density (or number of population), industrial structure, resident property, and per capita GRDP (gross regional domestic product) as determinants that affect financial independence. However, studies on the relationship between property tax and financial independence were insufficient. First, the factors influencing financial independence were examined through previous studies, and control variable factors were identified.

In addition, the contents of the current property tax system in Korea were examined, and problems that belong to local taxes but do not have the actual decision-making power in local governments were identified. In order to evaluate whether Korea's property tax share is appropriate, we additionally looked at the property tax share of major OECD countries, and confirmed that Korea's property tax share is very low.

The research hypothesis was set as 'the proportion of property tax will have a positive effect on the improvement of financial independence', and the independent variable was set as the proportion of property tax, the dependent variable was the degree of financial independence, and the control variables were set as variables such as demographic and financial factors. In order to conduct an empirical analysis, panel regression analysis was conducted by collecting data on major variables of metropolitan municipalities in special and metropolitan cities and municipalities in cities and counties from 2012 to 2019.

Through the heteroscedasticity test, autocorrelation test, and Hausman test, it was concluded that the fixed-effects model analysis was more appropriate than the joint OLS analysis method, and the results of the fixed-effects model analysis were as follows. It was confirmed that the independent variable, the property tax share, has a statistically significant (+) effect on the dependent variable, the degree of financial independence, and that a 1 unit increase in property tax increases the degree of financial independence by 0.2326.

Looking at the relationship between the control variable and the dependent variable, it was analyzed that the number of businesses in the lntertiary industry and GRDP (gross regional domestic product) per capita also had a statistically significant positive (+) effect on the financial independence of local governments. The number of businesses in the secondary industry has a statistically significant negative (-) effect on the degree of financial independence of local governments, and according to the analysis results of this study, it was confirmed that population density and regional area do not have a statistically significant effect on the degree of financial independence.

Based on these analysis results, some implications of this study were derived. The first is to empirically analyze the relationship between property tax and financial self-sufficiency, which has been insufficiently studied in the past. It is expected that this study will be able to empirically support theoretical discussions about expanding property tax revenues for the improvement of financial independence and financial decentralization of local governments. Second, Korea needs to expand the share of property tax in local governments for fiscal decentralization and decentralization.

Compared to the average of major OECD countries, Korea has a low share of real estate holding tax (property tax + comprehensive real estate tax), including property tax. In Korea, in order to promote decentralization and financial decentralization, local governments need to increase their ability to raise their own finances, and to this end, the proportion of property tax as a good local tax that best meets the conditions and principles of local tax must be increased. In addition, comprehensive real estate tax, which is included in real estate ownership tax, should be operated as a local tax, just like major OECD countries.

In addition, in order to increase the ability of local governments to raise their own finances, it is also necessary to transfer the relevant authority from the current Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the National Assembly to local governments and local councils so that property tax can be decided by local governments as true local taxes. In fact, major countries such as