公益信託之現況及未來發展之研究

Abstract

政府社會福利制度無法滿足多樣性的需求，社會福利預算成長亦有限，爰如何結合民間資源從事社會公益事業，為彌補政府資源有限之重要課題。依據行政院主計處「國民經濟動向統計季報」公告各國經濟成長率與平均每人GDP之比較，我國94年經濟成長率4.0%，分別較美國、日本及英國經濟長率3.2%、1.9%及1.9%為高，雖然我國公益信託發展遲緩，惟比較各國公益信託發展時程、公益信託件數與金額，如政府加強宣導，與私部門共同就法制面及實務面研議配套措施，公益信託績效可望顯著成長，致政府社會福利支出得有效移轉至私部門，撙節公部門福利支出預算。\n目前有諸多財團法人面臨同質性組織募款競爭，其募款方向朝向研擬遺產、保險、負擔捐贈及公益信託等創新模式，例如：財團法人伊甸社會福利基金會，其亟須專業法律、稅務及實務案例之知識，以瞭解公益信託之設立程序等專業知識。我國信託法業於民國85年1月26日公布施行，嗣於89年公布實施信託業法；惟信託法制完備後，公益信託至今仍未被從事公益活動者廣泛利用，其原因為何，及如何推廣公益信託以提高社會福利水準，均為值得深入探討之課題。我國信託法制主要是參考日本信託法及韓國信託法為研擬草案之藍本，間接參考英美法之相關判例學說，是以，日本、美國、英國公益信託之介紹，亦是本文研究之重要課題。\n公益信託與財團法人，均屬為提供一定財產從事社會公益活動而成立者，然其二者適合之型態互異，前者適合純粹以金錢給付為目的之公益；後者則適合直接從事經營事業類型之公益。就捐贈規模而言，前者不受額度限制，後者則受各主管機關規定不同。財團法人制度係屬大陸法制，公益信託制度則屬英美法制，惟二者在公益事業的推展應屬相輔相成之關係。再者，財團法人法源依據為民法，公益信託法源依據為信託法，惟公益信託既係信託之一種，爰解釋公益信託時，自無法由民法之概念加以解釋。綜上，本文擬以信託法為基礎介紹公益信託制度，進而比較公益信託與財團法人制度及稅制之差異及優劣，輔以各國公益信託之運作概況、制度與稅制之比較，提供有心從事公益活動人士一個參考，依其財力及需求選擇公益信託（Charitable Trust）或財團法人型態從事公益活動。

The governmental system of social welfare can not meet the various demands. The budget growth of social welfare is limited, therefore it is an import issue for the authorities to combine civil resources to engaged public welfare activities. According to the statistics of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) of Executive Yuan, the GDP growth rate is 4.0% in 1995, higher than America (3.2%), Japan (1.9%) and England (1.9%). Compared with global development of charitable trust, if the authorities strengthen advocating and study complete measures with private departments, the effects of charitable trust will develop obviously. Then the expenditure of social welfare will transfer to private departments successfully, and the governmental budget of social welfare will decline.\nMany nonprofit organizations are facing the homogeneous organization competition in raising funds. They are digging out and studying innovative ways of raising fund. Such as Eden Social Welfare Foundation, they desire to enrich law, taxes, and case studies to understand the procedure of setting up charitable trust. Trust Law and Trust Business Law had been stipulated and gone into effect in 1996 and 2000 separately, and other tax laws related trust has been put into practice. After completing trust law system, charitable trust had not been adopted popularly up to now. It is worthy to study the reason and to improve charitable trust so as to enhance social welfare criteria. Our trust law system refers to the trust law of Japan and Korea. It is related to American and England trust law systems indirectly. Therefore, it is an important issue to introduce the trust law of Japan, America, and England.\nCharitable trust and nonprofit organization are established by supplying certain property to engage in public welfare activities. The former is suitable for public welfare to sponsor money and not limited by amount; the latter is suitable for operating public welfare activities and amount is limited by different authorities. The nonprofit organization is continental system, and the charitable trust is common law. The former is resourced from the Civil Law; the latter is resourced from the Trust Law. We can’t explain the charitable trust by the Civil Law concept because the charitable trust belongs to trust. In short, I would like to introduce the system of charitable trust on the basis of the Trust Law, and compare the systems and taxation between charitable trust and nonprofit organizations. Moreover, it is essential to compare the operation, system, taxation globally. So as to provide thinking people some references to measure their financial resources and demand to do public welfare activities.