Tax Accountants to Be Recruited Separately from General Public and Experienced Public Officials... Examination System Improvement

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] To enhance the fairness of the tax accountant exam, the government has decided to separate the quota for general applicants and public servant career applicants starting next year, and apply an adjusted cut-off score for career applicants. The minimum passing quota of 700 will be allocated entirely to general applicants, and public servant career applicants must meet a higher minimum passing score than general applicants to be selected as additional candidates beyond the quota.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on the 20th the legislative notice of the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Tax Accountant Act containing these details.

Currently, the tax accountant exam selects candidates within the minimum passing number without distinguishing between general applicants and public servant career applicants, but the system has been improved to select them separately.

In particular, the passing score for public servant career applicants will apply an adjusted score considering the difficulty differences between subjects. Public servant career applicants who meet the adjusted cut-off score will be treated as additional candidates beyond the minimum passing quota.

The adjusted score is determined by multiplying the general applicants' cut-off score by the average score of the two accounting subjects and the average score of all subjects. Since the two accounting subjects are relatively less difficult and have higher average scores, this adjustment raises the cut-off for public servant career applicants, according to the government.

Additionally, starting from November 24 this year, tax accountants who have retired from public office will be restricted from accepting cases related to tax-related dispositions of the national institutions where they worked before retirement. The scope of restricted national institution affairs will be broadly defined to include tax rulings and tax investigations.

Furthermore, practical tax accountant training for lawyers will be newly regulated to be conducted by the Korean Bar Association.

The amendment will be open for legislative notice until June 29, followed by legal and regulatory review and the Cabinet meeting, and will be promulgated in September.