Gyeonggi Province Grapples with School Site Burden Tax Refunds

Gyeonggi Province faces budgetary challenges as it must refund school site burden taxes estimated to reach 50 billion won following a Constitutional Court ruling of unconstitutionality.

According to the provincial government on the 30th, the Constitutional Court rendered a ruling of unconstitutionality on March 31 regarding school site burden taxes that have been imposed and collected since 2001 on residents of multi-unit housing complexes with 300 or more households.

In response, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources has instructed metropolitan local governments, the actual collectors of school site burden taxes, to refund the taxes to multi-unit housing residents who filed objections within 90 days from the date they received the tax assessment notice this month.

As of the end of last month, the province estimates that the number of objection filers in the region reaches approximately 41,000, with an estimated 28,000 people eligible for refunds totaling 51.4 billion won.

The estimated refund amounts by city and county are: Hwaseong City 17 billion won, Yongin City 11.2 billion won, Goyang City 5.1 billion won, and Paju City 4.7 billion won.

The province plans to conduct detailed investigations by the end of July at the earliest to select refund recipients, then begin full refund procedures through each city and county as budget becomes available.

The refund funds will be secured by combining approximately 300 billion won in remaining balances from the 'School Site Burden Tax Special Account,' which includes unutilized school site burden tax revenues, and approximately 200 billion won expected to be secured through a supplementary budget.

Among these, funds secured through the supplementary budget are planned to be requested for payment to the Ministry of Education later.

However, the province faces difficulties as local tax revenues decline, making it likely that supplementary budget compilation will take until September or October at the earliest, and even if a supplementary budget is drafted, the province cannot guarantee securing refund budgets, causing internal concern.

A provincial official stated, "We plan to refund school site burden taxes in some form following the constitutional ruling of unconstitutionality, but at present, securing funding is not easy, so we cannot guarantee the timing of refunds," and added, "It appears the Ministry of Education needs to expedite national funding support to local governments." <Yonhapnews>