[Editorial] More Tax Collectors?

The Ministry of Finance and Economy is now seeking to put into action a mid- and long-term tax reform plan, which had been deferred until after the local elections. A decision was made to expand the scale of the Tax and Customs Office from 10 departments in three bureaus to 12 departments in four bureaus.

According to a tentative reform plan issued this January, the main objective is to put up hundreds of trillions of won more for the next 10 years for welfare and unification support. Specific policies to be implemented include a tax reform plan to increase taxes. In a word, the Tax and Customs Office is being expanded to “squeeze more taxes.”

The National Tax Service (NTS) decided to hire 231 more people for collecting the general real estate tax, and is planning to hire a maximum of 1,000 additionally. It seems that the NTS will increase the number of revenue officers when the heavy real estate taxes are imposed and the tax reform plan is implemented. The number of new officers to be hired for the next year’s real estate transfer tax based on real sale price amounts to about 300. Moreover, the number of additional officers for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to be implemented in 2008 amounts to a maximum of 6,000.

The plan to increase revenue officers has no justification and is against what the people want. The general real estate tax is formally collected through the payer’s voluntary report, but in reality it is not different from other taxes imposed by the government. When the government already assigned a price for housing and land, what use is there for so many revenue officers? It is the government’s obligation to taxpayers to restructure its loose organization and hire only a few new officers as needed. It is questionable and anti-democratic for a regime with only one year and eight months left to try to reform taxes and hire more officers.

More serious is that the vicious circle of increased taxes and revenue officers will lead to a “big government” and more regulations. As a result, the energy of the private sector will shrink, which will bring about low development and the people’s economic plight. The people already showed their judgment on the government’s harsh tax policies through the result of the local elections. It is not time for the current government to seek an increase of taxes and revenue officers. To respect the people’s will revealed in the local elections, it should pay more attention to reducing the people’s tax burdens and make the government small and efficient.