Importer fault and reissue of corrected import tax invoices

1. 01Question

   Where a customs commissioner, after granting a reduction assessment on an importer's amendment application, later raised customs and value-added tax on the royalty added to the taxable value and the Board of Audit and Inspection required the corrected import tax invoices to be revoked, may the refusal to reissue them be lawful if the importer has no responsibility attributable to it under Article 35(2)(ii)(c) of the former Value-Added Tax Act?

2. 02Holding

   It was unlawful. The import declarations subject to the later increase followed the original reduction assessment, which the customs commissioner with inspection powers had granted after examining the amendment application, so on the reasons the court below gave the importer could not be said to have any responsibility attributable to it. It never expressly claimed that the consignment import contract had ended, the contract stated only its commencement date, and submitting documents at the commissioner's request could not have put the commissioner under the mistake that the contract had ended.

   Summary of the holding, verbatim

   증액경정의 대상이 된 갑 회사의 물품에 관한 수입신고는 실지조사권을 가진 세관장이 경정청구를 심사한 후 인용한 당초 감액경정에 따른 것이므로, 그 후 이에 관하여 증액경정이 있었더라도 당초 감액경정에 따라 수입신고를 한 갑 회사에게 구 부가가치세법(2015. 12. 15. 법률 제13556호로 개정되기 전의 것) 제35조 제2항 제2호 (다)목에서 말하는 귀책사유가 있다고 볼 수 없음에도 이와 달리 본 원심판단에 법리오해의 잘못이 있다고 한 사례.

   Unofficial English translation

   The import declaration of A's goods, which became the subject of the rectifications increasing the tax amount, was one made pursuant to the original rectification decreasing the tax amount, which the director of customs, who had the authority to conduct an actual examination, reviewed upon the application for rectification and granted; accordingly, even though there was thereafter a rectification increasing the tax amount with respect thereto, no attributable cause as referred to in Article 35, paragraph (2), subparagraph 2, item (c) of the former Value-Added Tax Act (the Act as it stood prior to its amendment by Act No. 13556 on December 15, 2015) could be imputed to A, which had made the import declaration pursuant to the original rectification decreasing the tax amount; this case concerns a holding that the reasoning of the court below, which held otherwise, was erroneous in misapprehension of legal principles.

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

   Circumstances weighed Stated in the decision

   갑 회사가 통관지 세관장의 요구에 따라 위와 같은 서류를 제출하였다는 사정만으로 통관지 세관장으로 하여금 위탁수입계약이 종료되었다는 착오를 일으켰다고 할 수 없는 점 등을 종합하면,

   Unofficial English translation

   Taking into account, among other things, the circumstance that the mere fact that A submitted the foregoing documents at the request of the director of customs at the port of clearance cannot be regarded as having caused the director of customs at the port of clearance to fall into the error that the commission import agreement had been terminated,

5. 05Factors

   • 갑 회사가 경정청구 과정에서 위탁수입계약이 종료되었다고 명시적으로 주장한 사실은 없고
   • 위탁수입계약에는 계약시행일만 기재되어 있을 뿐 계약존속기간이나 종료일은 기재되어 있지 않으며
   • 가격합의서에는 위탁수입계약의 존속을 전제로 갑 회사와 병 회사 사이에서 배송료 등을 산정하기 위한 세부 항목이 기재되어 있을 뿐이어서
   • 증액경정의 대상이 된 갑 회사의 물품에 관한 수입신고는 실지조사권을 가진 세관장이 경정청구를 심사한 후 인용한 당초 감액경정에 따른 것이므로

   Unofficial English translation

   • there is no fact that A expressly asserted in the course of the application for rectification that the commission import agreement had been terminated;

   • the commission import agreement records only its effective date, and neither the term of its existence nor its termination date is recorded therein;

   • the price agreement records only the detailed items for computing delivery charges and the like between A and C Company on the premise that the commission import agreement continues in existence; and

   • the import declaration of A's goods, which became the subject of the rectifications increasing the tax amount, was one made pursuant to the original rectification decreasing the tax amount, which the director of customs, who had the authority to conduct an actual examination, reviewed upon the application for rectification and granted.

6. 06Relation to precedent

   States a new standard Read from the decision

   구 부가가치세법(2015. 12. 15. 법률 제13556호로 개정되기 전의 것) 제35조 제2항 제2호 (다)목에서 말하는 귀책사유가 있다고 볼 수 없음에도 이와 달리 본 원심판단에 법리오해의 잘못이 있다고 한 사례

   Unofficial English translation

   no attributable cause as referred to in Article 35, paragraph (2), subparagraph 2, item (c) of the former Value-Added Tax Act (the Act as it stood prior to its amendment by Act No. 13556 on December 15, 2015) could be imputed; this case concerns a holding that the reasoning of the court below, which held otherwise, was erroneous in misapprehension of legal principles.

   Decisions referred to

   해당 본문 참조

7. 07Burden of proof

   Not addressed Not in the decision

8. 08Open question and revisit condition

   If an importer submits a document from which the customs commissioner infers, wrongly but plausibly, that the consignment import contract had ended, when does that submission become a responsibility attributable to the importer?

   The remand judgment of the Seoul High Court, once it decides the case again on the record, will show how the responsibility test is applied to the remaining grounds. Any amendment to Article 35 of the Value-Added Tax Act or to the customs value rules in Article 30(1)(iv) of the Customs Act would call for this entry to be read again.

Read 2026-10-25 · Cross-read 2026-10-25. 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.

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