2015년 초 연말정산시 근로자들은 이전보다 세부담이 크게 늘어나자 정부의 조세정책에 대한 불만이 급증하게 되었다. 이에 따라 정부는 근로소득자의 원천징수세액의 수준을 본인이 스스로 결정할 수 있게 하고 추가납부세액이 10만 원을 초과하는 경우 3개월간분할납부할 수 있는 제도를 도입하는 등 조세저항을 줄이는 정책을 시행하였다. 본 연구는 우리나라의 납세자들이 소득세 확정시 추가납부와 환급을 결정짓는 원천징수세액 수준과 관련된 납세자들의 의사결정에 영향을 미치는 납세자의 특성에 대해 분석하고있다. 이를 위하여 Ajzen(1991)의 계획된 행동에 관한 이론(Theory of Planned Behavior : TPB)을 이론적 근거로 납세자들의 행동에 미칠 수 있는 요소들을 파악한 다음 이들 요소들이 실제 행동에 영향을 미치는지에 대해 분석하였다. 분석결과, 납세자의 태도는 원천징수세액과 관련된 납세자의 의사결정에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 분석되었으며, 주관적 규범 역시 원천징수와 관련된 우리나라 소득세 납세자의 의사결정에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 반면 우리나라 소득세 납세자들의 경우 인지된 행동통제는 원천징수와 관련된 납세자의 행동에 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났으며 이는 우리나라와 미국의 원천징수와 관련된 제도상의 차이로 인해 나타나는 결과로 추측된다. 우리나라 납세자들의 원천징수세액 수준과 관련된 의사결정에 영향을 미치는 납세자의 특성을 분석한 본 연구의 연구결과는 이 분야의 연구에 대한 새로운 연구결과를 제시함으로써 학문적으로 외적타당성을 높이고 아울러 정부당국으로 하여금 원천징수와 관련된 정책에 대한 이론적 근거를 제공할 수 있을 것으로 생각된다.

In 2015, there were severe refusal to pay tax to wage earners. Korean National Tax Service has required prepayment of individual income taxes consistent with Income Tax Law. Employer-withholding from salaries and wages has been the principal collection and delivery mechanism for these prepayments, with a small portion coming via estimated tax payments. The prepayment level determines the taxpayer’s prepayment position when filing the tax return: if total payments exceed tax liability, the taxpayer is entitled to a refund; if tax liability exceed total payments, the taxpayer has a balance due to the Korean National Tax Service. In effect, over-withholding of individual income taxes results in interest-free loans to the government, creating opportunity costs to taxpayers equal to the amount of foregone interest income. From an economic standpoint, a positive time value of money dictates the objective of paying as little as possible on an interim basis, thereby maximizing the payment upon the filing the final return. Although there are many reasons why tax preparers may influence their clients’ prepayment position, a priori direction of this influence is ambiguous. Research on the influence of tax preparers on various taxpayer decisions, such as prepayment position, is important because many individual income tax returns are payed-prepared. This study examines the underlying reasons why taxpayers tend to make tax payments that ultimately result in tax refund. I draw on Ajzen``s(1991) Theory of Planned Behavior(TPB) to comprehensively model this phenomenon. According to this theory, intentions to perform behaviors of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are shown to be related to appropriate sets of salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about the behavior. Ajzen(1991) concluded that the TPB models actual behavior as a function of behavioral intention and perceived behavioral control. Behavioral intention depends on three factor : attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. I build a model of taxpayer prepayment behavior based on the TPB, which allows me to test the three following hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that taxpayer attitudes will influence taxpayer interim tax payment decisions. The second is that subjective norms will influence taxpayer interim tax payment decisions. The last hypothesis is that taxpayers`` perceptions of their ability to control their prepayment position will influence taxpayer interim tax payment decisions. The hypotheses was test by administering a hypothetical scenario to a sample of taxpayers in the special region of Korea. I collected data that related to the attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and behavior using measures provided by Bobek et al.(2007). A structural equation model was constructed to address the hypotheses. I utilized structural equation model which depicts the relationships behavioral intention(attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) and taxpayers’ tax payment decisions and analyzed data by SMART PLS(Partial Least Squares). Overall, the result from 122 respondents show taxpayer``s attitudes and subjective norms affect their withholding decisions. But the results from the structural equation model do not provide support for the statistically significant relationship between perceived behavioral control and withholding decisions. It does not appear that difficulty in changing an individual``s withholding procedures is a significant factor in withholding choice. The results of this study potentially aid subsequent research by indicating the specific means through which the taxpayer``s attitudes, subjective norms and behavioral control and withholding decisions. This study conducted on Korean income taxpayers can contribute to the generalization of other literatures on taxpayers’ interim tax payment decisions through comparative analysis. This study is also expected to use as the basis for the study of taxpayers’ decision making about interim tax payment strategies. and to perform a lot of further study on taxpayers’ attitudes more actively in the future.