A loss-reduction assessment as an administrative disposition in judicial review

1. 01Question

   Where the tax base for a fiscal year was first reported after the amended Corporate Tax Act took effect on 1 January 2010, and the tax authority reduces that year's losses, is the loss-reduction assessment an administrative disposition that can be challenged in judicial review?

2. 02Holding

   Yes, in principle. The amended Article 13(i) proviso confines the losses that may be carried forward to those included in a tax base that was reported, determined, re-determined or amended, so that, absent special circumstances, a taxpayer who did not contest the legality of the loss-reduction assessment when it was notified cannot later argue, in connection with the carry-forward of losses in later fiscal years, that the earlier assessment was wrong or that losses beyond those re-determined remain deductible. Such an assessment is an act of the tax authority that directly affects the corporation's duty to pay corporate tax and is therefore an administrative disposition subject to administrative litigation.

   Summary of the holding, verbatim

   이러한 과세관청의 결손금 감액경정은 이후 사업연도의 이월결손금 공제와 관련하여 법인세 납세의무자인 법인의 납세의무에 직접 영향을 미치는 과세관청의 행위로서, 항고소송의 대상이 되는 행정처분이라고 봄이 타당하다.

   Unofficial English translation

   Such a reduction assessment of a net loss by the tax authority is an act of the tax authority that directly affects the tax liability of the corporation, which is the taxpayer of the corporate tax, in connection with the deduction of net losses carried forward to subsequent taxable years, and it is reasonable to regard it as an administrative disposition subject to appeal litigation (administrative litigation).

3. 03Disposition

   Reversed and remanded Stated in the decision

   원심판결을 파기하고, 사건을 서울고등법원에 환송한다.

   Unofficial English translation

   The judgment of the court below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Seoul High Court.

4. 04Form of the test

   Elements stated Stated in the decision

   법인세 납세의무자인 법인의 납세의무에 직접 영향을 미치는 과세관청의 행위로서, 항고소송의 대상이 되는 행정처분이라고 봄이 타당하다.

   Unofficial English translation

   As an act of the tax authority that directly affects the tax liability of the corporation, which is the taxpayer of the corporate tax, it is reasonable to regard it as an administrative disposition subject to appeal litigation (administrative litigation).

5. 05Factors

   • 원칙적으로 공제가 가능한 이월결손금의 범위를 신고·경정 등으로 확정된 결손금으로 축소하여 법적 안정성을 도모하기 위한 것이다
   • 개정 법인세법이 시행된 2010. 1. 1. 이후 최초로 과세표준을 신고한 사업연도에 발생한 결손금 등에 대하여 과세관청의 결손금 감액경정이 있는 경우
   • 특별한 사정이 없는 한 납세의무자로서는 결손금 감액경정 통지가 이루어진 단계에서 그 적법성을 다투지 않는 이상
   • 법인세 납세의무자인 법인의 납세의무에 직접 영향을 미치는 과세관청의 행위로서

   Unofficial English translation

   • It is intended to promote legal stability by narrowing the scope of net losses carried forward that are in principle deductible to net losses as determined by filing, assessment, etc.

   • Where the tax authority makes a reduction assessment of a net loss with respect to a net loss, etc. incurred in the taxable year for which a tax base was first filed after January 1, 2010, when the amended Corporate Tax Act entered into force

   • Unless there are special circumstances, insofar as the taxpayer does not contest its legality at the stage at which the notice of the reduction assessment of the net loss is given

   • As an act of the tax authority that directly affects the tax liability of the corporation, which is the taxpayer of the corporate tax,

6. 06Relation to precedent

   States a new standard Read from the decision

   항고소송의 대상이 되는 행정처분이라고 봄이 타당하다.

   Unofficial English translation

   It is reasonable to regard it as an administrative disposition subject to appeal litigation (administrative litigation).

   Decisions referred to

   해당 본문 참조

7. 07Burden of proof

   Not addressed Not in the decision

8. 08Open question and revisit condition

   What special circumstances allow a taxpayer to argue in a later fiscal year that a notified loss-reduction assessment was wrong?

   A later decision defining the special circumstances on which this preclusion rests, or one extending the rule to losses of fiscal years before the amendment, would require this entry to be read again. Any amendment to Article 13(i) of the Corporate Tax Act would do the same.

Read 2026-10-26 · Cross-read 2026-10-26. All quotes matched against the official text. The Chinese-character placeholders the court used for anonymised parties are given in their Korean readings, and parenthetical Chinese-character glosses are omitted.

Every entry is published only after all quotes have been matched character by character against the official text, and audited by an independent second reading from a different model family across all eight axes. Both agreed axes and text-grounded interpretive divergences are recorded openly. The ledger is a research record, not an assessment of the court or advice on any matter.