Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Howard Roark]

can somebody please tell me once and for all...

i am canadian BTW, can i get back the income tax i paid here in korea?

i've heard different stories. some people have said: "yes. it's easy. just go to the tax office with your plane ticket outta here just before you go and you can get your taxes back"

i asked my school to check it out. as usual, they are pretty useless. they just say "i don't think so". they won't actually pick up a phone and call the proper authorities, that would be way too easy.

there are thousands of canadians working, or have worked, in korea and paid taxes. there must be a few who have personal experience or knowledge on this matter. i just can't seem to get the facts on this. thanks to anyone with the info.

[eamo]

I'm going through the tax wrangle with my hogwan at the moment. It seems to me it's up to how much trouble you want to take over it. tax refunds can be got but only by going through hoops which i don't pretend to understand, yet. My hogwan only want to give me a tax-paid receipt created by themselves. Not worth the paper it's written on. You have to get a KTO (korean tax office) statement of tax-paid. The good people from the EFL law advice website, available from eslcafe, can direct you how to do this.

[Captain Obvious 2.0]

Korea has an agreement with some countries allowing for you to get your pension payments back, but the income tax payments are gone forever.

I don't remember if Canadians can get back their pension payments I'm afraid. Though you can only get it back once you're leaving the country.

[Dude Love]

You're entitled to a tax refund. It took a while to get mine because I don't think my boss was paying his taxes. He finally just emailed me a form and wired the money to my bank account. I think normally, though, you'd have to do some running around at a taxation office. Just me strong, stand up for youlrself and demand what's yours. We have more leverage in Korean than we realsie sometimes.

[Confused Canadian]

First of all, pension and income tax are different. You can get your pension back if your country has a reciprocal agreement with Korea in this respect. I'm Canadian, and I know many fellow Canadian teachers who have gotten their pension back. You get back what you paid, plus an equal amount that was paid by your school, so essentially you're getting back double what you paid. I don't know about other countries, but I do know it is currently possible for Canadians. Basically, you have to go to the pension office with your plane ticket out of Korea when your contract is alomost up and fill out some forms. It will take a few months to process, but the money will be wired to you in Canada. (I'm assuming they will simply deduct the cost of the wire transfer from the money being sent to you).

As for income tax, ALL TEACHERS ARE ABLE TO CLAIM INCOME TAX. I have worked here for over 7 years, and until last year, I too was unaware of this rule. (I also have strong suspicions that many of my previous schools were not paying tax, but that is a whole different story). However, my current school filed our income tax for us (we have a large accounting department at our head office). All I had to do was sign a form, provide my wife's info, and *poof*, income tax refund. How much you get back depends on how long you've worked here and how much money you make, of course. However, all of the teachers at our school got refunds, and we have teachers from Canada, America, and Britain. Unlike in Canada and America, the tax year is the same as the calender year in Korea, so taxes are filed in January. If you want a tax refund next year, start pestering your director in Nov./Dec. to get the necessary paperwork done. I can't give you specifics, because as already mentioned, my head office filed our taxes for us.

[JackSarang]

Canadians and Americans can get their pension contributions back.

All other nationalities are out of luck. I was in the Pension office yesterday so can confirm this.

[weened]

I also can confirm that my friend did jump through all the hoops and received two years worth of taxes back.