The appeal is dismissed.

The costs of appeal are assessed against the Plaintiff.

The grounds of appeal are examined.

1. Article 54(1) of the former Restriction of Special Local Taxation Act (amended by Act No. 12175, Jan. 1, 2014) (hereinafter “Special Provisions”) provides that “The acquisition tax shall be reduced by 50/100 until December 31, 2013 on real estate acquired by a tourism complex development project implementer under Article 55(1) of the Tourism Promotion Act to implement a tourism complex development project.”

Meanwhile, Article 7(4) and (1) of the former Local Tax Act (amended by Act No. 12153, Jan. 1, 2014) regards the increase in the value as a result of the change of land category as acquisition and thus subject to taxation of acquisition tax (hereinafter “liver acquisition tax”).

Where the value increases due to the de facto change of the category of land the ownership of which has been transferred to the trustee due to a trust under the Trust Act, even if the truster actually changed the category of the land, the taxpayer of deemed acquisition tax is not the truster

(see Supreme Court Decision 2010Du2395, Jun. 14, 2012). Therefore, in order to implement a tourist complex development project as a tourist complex developer, a trustee, who is liable to pay deemed acquisition tax, may be deemed to have increased the value of the relevant land due to the de facto change of the land category. The instant special provisions may be applied.

2. The lower court, as indicated in its reasoning, determined that the instant disposition, which did not apply the instant special provisions, was lawful with respect to deemed acquisition tax imposed on the Plaintiff following an increase in value due to a land category of each of the instant land, on the grounds that there is no evidence to acknowledge that the Plaintiff, the taxpayer of deemed acquisition tax due to a land category change, is the

Such determination by the court below is based on the legal principles as seen earlier, and it erred by misapprehending the special provisions of this case and the legal principles on deemed acquisition tax subject to taxation.