Korean Job Discussion Forums

[reeno]

I left Korea back in 2004 after a successful year's teaching. Rather naively, I did not recieve any payslips whilst working at my school. Now the Inland Revenue in the UK are after me for �1000 unless I can prove that I paid tax. As my employer is a bit of a slippery fish, this is proving difficult. I don't know whether or not he did indeed pay the tax he said he was. I contacted the tax office local to the area I was working in just before Christmas and am still awaiting their response.

Beware: make sure you get proof of earnings whilst in Korea because it will most probably end up biting you in the bum if you try to ignore it.

Similarly, if anyone has experienced similar/has any advice on this matter, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Happy Friday, RX

[crazy tigger]

Slightly off topic but I am looking at coming to Korea next year and am a bit unsure where I stand with paying tax,from what the Inland Revenue have toldyou do you not have to pay it in the UK if you have paid it in Korea or would you still have to pay something as the rate of taxation is higher here than it is there?

[reeno]

Hi Tigger,

I have discussed this with Inland Revenue at great length. You need to contact Inland Revenue them to let them know that you will be working out of the country. By doing this, you make yourself eligible for tax credit. Make sure you get proof of earnings/tax paid whilst in Korea to show Inland Revenue when you return to the UK. They will deduct your Korean Income Tax from what you would have paid here.

If you were really organised, you could go to Korea in April (start of tax year) and returning the following April (end of the tax year), thus saving yourself all the fuss bynot being registered as having worked in the UK at all for that year.

Good luck with your planning.

[crazy tigger]

Thanks Reeno, sounds like I'm going to have good fun sorting this out! The annoying thing is I will only be working in the UK for the first couple of weeks in April

[bellum99]

Here is a good question.....WHY DID YOU TELL THEM ANYTHING?
They don't know you are working in South Korea. You could be traveling the world. You went home and claimed the earnings on your income tax form...right. You should pay the tax if you are that smart.

[spyro25]

i'd like more information on this too. i came to korea in 2004 and havent been back. is there anything i need to do with the inland revenue that i could get a family member to do? as far as i know my employers have paid the korean taxes. my family have never recieved any letters from IR. i'm not really sure how it works. i have some payslips from this years job only, for my first two years i didnt get any payslips.

any advice would be appreciated, i'd hate to think there was a large bill waiting for me when i got home.

[crazy tigger]

I was assuming the UK IR would somehow find out due to the pension agreement between UK and South Korea, correct me if I am wrong but UKers can't claim pension backbecause it counts against national insurance or something? Whichmakes me think it might be better to have an employer who doesn't bother with the pension? I know plenty of people who have worked in Australia and never declared anything.

[Maz]

[reeno]

Thanks for your input Bellum. Unfortunately, in a way you do have a point. The IR wrote to me and said they were missing info for me from the period that I was in Korea. Perhaps I could have lied, who knows. As it happens, I came clean about my employment and my earnings and am now dealing with the consequences.

However, if you are thinking of bringing any earnings back with you, you might find lying more difficult as you are likely to be subject to an investigation from your bank when you come back with how ever many thousands of pounds to pay in.

Lying about your earnings to the IR won't serve too great a purpose because to get tax credit you need to show your payslips for your time in Korea anyway.

R.

[bellum99]

You worked one year. That means that you could have kept the maximum in cash ($10,000) on you during the flight and not put it in the bank in one large deposit. I highly doubt you had even that much after only one year in Korea.
If you had a little more than that..send it to your parents account.
In 2 minutes I just came up with this astounding bit of logic. You didn't have to say anything.

----But you are right..it usually doesn't work out well when you lie. It seems like it always comes back to bite you on the ass.

[willneverteachagain]

tell them that u were not a rest. of the UK and that u are not paying taxes in both countries. If they tell u that they are taxing ur world income, tell them to f off and that they are out of their mind. The canadian government tried to tell me that they were taxing my world income and i said no ur not because im declaring non residency and u guys cant tax shit after i do that so u can take ur world income BS and go to hell.

I didnt file for 5 years and when i started working in canada again i filed taxes and everything went back to normal.

They cant take taxes from u in both countries. Korean income tax is way lower than the UK and canada; they cant say ok well we want 25%-3%,
that's so illegal

[Adventurer]

My last boss did not take taxes from my salary (the school is bankrupt now), and I am working another job. What on Earth can I do? I did work back home for some of the time before arriving in Korea in April.

[crazy tigger]

Willneverteachagain - yeah, I will try that, am sure it will work! And clearly it is totally illegal for them to tax in this way, no idea why so many people let them do it!

Ok, just to clarify, if I wasn't to work ANY of the tax year in the UK does this mean I wouldn't be liable for an UK income tax?

I am also assuming that if my employer does pay pension for me then this will be traceable in the UK due to the recipricol agreement?

[reeno]

My last boss did not take taxes from my salary (the school is bankrupt now), and I am working another job. What on Earth can I do? I did work back home for some of the time before arriving in Korea in April.

Adventurer - you'll probably find yourself in the same situation as me I'm afraid. Without having proof of taxes paid in Korea, the IR will ask you to pay the English equivalent. I know this seems ridiculously unfair and have had numerous frustrating telephone conversations with them about it. The bottom line is that you have to pay income tax if you are working, be this abroad or at home - whether or not this is a rule of the UK specifically or globally, I am unsure... The only thing I could suggest is that you claim you were just travelling for the year OR say that you earned less than you actually did - again though I'm not sure what the possible consequences of this could be. I doubt Korea and England communicate regarding such matters - there are so many hagwons afterall - who knows though!

crazy tigger, you asked: if I wasn't to work ANY of the tax year in the UK does this mean I wouldn't be liable for an UK income tax? Yes - this is what I have been told. If you don't work in the UK between April - April then you are not classed as a resident liable to pay income tax. I have been told this on two different occasions so am quite confident of it.

As for pensions: not a clue, sorry.

[TheUrbanMyth]