Until immediately after the liberation in 1945, Korea followed the Japanese tax system in almost every respect as had been transplanted from Japan during its imperialistic rule of Korea. Since then on, however, there have been several revisions of tax systems in both countries as occasion demands from each side, resulting in fairly great difference in their structures today. The present study makes approaches toward the local tax systems of the two countries from a comparative viewpoint. In sum, comparisons are made as to the structures of local tax revenues and expenditures to explore local tax systems and characters as well as major indicators connected with the local tax of both countries. Efforts are also made to examine maldistribution or disproportion of local tax by region, and stability and growth potential of revenues in both countries. This study is aimed at investigating the local tax system of Japan which is far ahead of Korea in terms of economic development in an attempt to find suggestions for reform of the Korean local tax system.

Until immediately after the liberation in 1945, Korea followed the Japanese tax system in almost every respect as had been transplanted from Japan during its imperialistic rule of Korea. Since then on, however, there have been several revisions of tax systems in both countries as occasion demands from each side, resulting in fairly great difference in their structures today. The present study makes approaches toward the local tax systems of the two countries from a comparative viewpoint. In sum, comparisons are made as to the structures of local tax revenues and expenditures to explore local tax systems and characters as well as major indicators connected with the local tax of both countries. Efforts are also made to examine maldistribution or disproportion of local tax by region, and stability and growth potential of revenues in both countries. This study is aimed at investigating the local tax system of Japan which is far ahead of Korea in terms of economic development in an attempt to find suggestions for reform of the Korean local tax system.