Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kkrumrei]

I'm in the second week of a two week summer camp for the city of Yongin. We've just been told that we'll be taxed around 25%, the high end of the tax bracket (?). We all expected to be taxed at the usual rate of @3%, and the contract said we'd be taxed at the national tax level (which is, of course, ambiguous).

Has anyone had this before? Are we screwed?

[/b]

[Unposter]

Probably.

You will have to get someone else to tell you the story and do a search on Dave's but this has happen to people before.

I belive it has something to do with not being year round employees in Korea. If you just come for a camp, you are taxed at a different rate. The big problem is that you were neither informed of this nor was your camp dishonest enough to just report you as a regular E-2/F-2 employee or just not report you at all.

I think the only thing you can do is quit or take your lumps with the salary. But don't take my word for it - it is just my foggy memmory.

I think it was a HUFS summer camp that was widely discussed about this problem.

[Ekuboko]

Last year a friend came to Korea to do a summer camp on a C4 visa. She was taxed very highly but after she secured her ARC (she got a FT job and E2 visa after that), she was refunded all of it.

[BigBuds]

C-4 visas are supposed to be taxed at 18%. It's people on E-2 visas that get the low tax rates.

[tob55]

You describe something similar to the VAT (Value Added Tax) that some companies are forced to pay. It has to do with the fact that Korea wants to guarantee a certain percentage of the money going out to businesses and foreign employees stays in the country rather than being taken somewhere else in the world to spend.

If you are on an E2 visa you should have been taxed at the regular national rate you normal fall under because you are working as a temporary employee in the country. 25% seems way high and I would guess the camp somehow over shot their budget, so the only way to recoup their losses was to make the personal taxes higher for the teachers...That is speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it is true...

[kkrumrei]

Ah crap. i have a bad feeling about this.

All but one of the 18 teachers here are public school employees in Yongin. that's why we were invited to apply - who better to staff Yongin city's summer camp than it's newly hired foreign english teachers, I guess.

However, it is being held at HUFS, Yongin campus. I did a search, and I didn't find anything widely discussed, but there was one thread warning about HUFS summer camp employees being taxed 25%.

We're almost all on e-2 visas (except for one, who has a completely different arrangment), but of course for this camp we have C-4 visas on top of that. Does anyone know if e-2 visa holders with C-4 visas for the purpose of working at a summer camp can possibly be taxed more than the regular 3 or 4%?

What's really making the mood militant around here is that some people actually asked specifically what the tax rate would be. some were told directly that it would be the regular amount. others weren't given an answer. The contract, if i remember, just says we'll be taxed at the national rate. I'd hate to think that the city of Yongin would over tax us just to recoup some losses on a summer camp.

We've still got a few days to battle things out here, so if anyone has any experience or suggestions, please let us know.

[kkrumrei]

Just for the record, we were just promised that we'd only be taxed 4.4%. We've asked to have that in writing. Leaving aside the frustration that comes from one boss telling us we'd be taxed at 25%, and another telling it'll be 4.4%, we're a pretty relieved bunch. We'll see, I guess, when pay day comes.

[xCustomx]

how's the camp been? i almost had to work at it

[Ekuboko]

I don't understand why you were made to get C4 visas when you already have E2's -- why didn't you all just get Immi permission to work at that camp (applied and approved on the back of your ARC's?)

[sojourner1]

I understand that you get a tax refund, but that your employer has to prepare it for you. I guess if your being paid like 1 mil a week for a camp, then you fall into a high bracket for that time period as similar in the states when you realize a big dollar week, but if you don't earn 1 mil a week the entire year, then you're entitled to a refund and fall back to paying like 3.5% or something not much more than that.

Is what I said correct? If not, tell us all how to get a tax refund for overpaying or at the end of a contract.

I went to the tax site to make a calculation and found a typical E-2 earning 2 mil a month gets like 500,000 won return after a year.

[jellobean]

I don't know all the rules, but if you are working year round, when you do your taxes for the year you may get taxed at the lower rate and refunded... That is if they actually paid the taxes to the government... Make them give you an official tax receipt...

[angelgirl]

I worked at this camp in 2006. They took 25% tax then todl me if I wait til May 2007. I could get the money back. So, I waited. I went in to the tax office in Yongin and applied for the tax. In May they said I'd get in in 5 to 6 weeks. it's now almost the end of August and I haven't get a cent (or is that won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

bye bye to my money. I'll never work for that university again.

I hear that this summer they are paying 1,000,000 won for the whole month!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope HUFS had the decency to pay the tax.

[angelgirl]

[FistFace]

Oh god... this comes up every year.

HUFS screws people by fibbing about tax.

Last year, there were threads telling people to warn others about this very camp.

[FistFace]

Here it is:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=51328&highlight=HUFS+tax&sid=ec394954ebad84f5dc19484abdccc87c