The present disclosure relates to signaling of sample adaptive offset (SAO) parameters determined to minimize an error between an original image and a reconstructed image in video encoding and decoding operations. An SAO decoding method includes obtaining context-encoded leftward SAO merge information and context-encoded upward SAO merge information from a bitstream of a largest coding unit (MCU); obtaining SAO on/off information context-encoded with respect to each color component, from the bitstream; if the SAO on/off information indicates to perform SAO operation, obtaining absolute offset value information for each SAO category bypass-encoded with respect to each color component, from the bitstream; and obtaining one of band position information and edge class information bypass-encoded with respect to each color component, from the bitstream.