세무사법 제6조 및 제20조 제1항에 대한 2021년 개정안의 쟁점과 위헌성 = The unconstitutionality of the 2021 amendment to Articles 6 and 20-2 of Tax accountant Act

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The unconstitutionality of the 2021 amendment to Articles 6 and 20-2 of Tax accountant Act
Choi, Kwang-Sun(Chonnam National University, Professor, Lawyer)
The former Tax accountant Act denied to register as a tax accountant to lawyers who passed the bar exam after 2004. Articles 6 and 20-2 of Tax accountant Act, which prohibit lawyers from representing taxpayers, were declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. This decision of the Constitutional Court is adquate. It is because the Tax accountant Act has infringed on lawyers' freedom to practice their profession by forbidding most of the tax work.
Three legislative bills were submitted to the National Assembly to remove the unconstitutionality of the Tax accountant Act. However, the bill currently being reviewed by the Legislative and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly is still unconstitutional. This is because that it has completely banned those who have passed the bar exam since 2004 from doing preparing books by proxy for filing returns on taxes and verifying whether a tax payer files a return conscientiously pursuant to Income Tax Act or Corporate Tax Act. This restriction is unconstitutional because a lawyer qualified as a tax accountant can perform tax representation. Even if a lawyer lacks expertise in tax representation, this can be supplemented through practical training. Hereafter it is necessary to reconcile the interests of lawyers, tax accountants, and certified public accountants by enacting a separate law for tax representation.