While the purpose of taxation is basically the procurement of the required economic resources for national finance, it is necessary to make efforts to establish an efficient and fair taxation system as the imposition of taxes has an important influence on the economic activities and income distribution of economic units. To this end, it is necessary to identify the issues and subjects of discussion to reform South Korea's taxation system going forward, while also aligning with global taxation trends by first understanding South Korea's taxation system and identifying the discussions on and direction of tax reform in major advanced countries. 
   Under such purpose, the National Assembly Budget Office (NABO) has published the series 「Understanding and Issues of Taxation」, which focuses on understanding and identifying the pending issues of major tax items including income tax, corporate tax and value-added tax, etc., from 2013 based on the analysis and evaluation of and experience in the tax system and the revised tax bill. Last year, NABO published the revised edition reflecting the revisions made on major tax items while also adding the International Taxation Volume, which discusses taxation issues following the spread of international  transaction, and the Statistics Volume, which summarizes and organizes the major statistical data of each tax item. Following last year, the Tax Overview Volume, which summarizes major tax items, and the Tax Expenditure Volume, which identifies the status of diverse non-taxation/exemption systems, were newly added this year.
   This report explains the taxation system based on theoretical background, legislation and the history of major reforms in an easy-to-understand manner and comprehensively compares/organizes OECD tax statistics, the current status of taxation systems in major countries, recent reform trends and major discussion points based on the latest data. As such, it is expected to be useful in understanding the South Korean taxation system, analyzing major discussion issues and establishing tax policies.