Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cbclark4]

AMENDMENT XVI
Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from
whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several
States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

[lucas_p]

[skeeterses]

I'll be honest. I haven't paid any Income taxes or filled out any tax forms since I left America almost 3 years ago. My guess is that a lot of hagwons deduct the taxes automatically from the paychecks, just like employers do back in America. So whether you fill out your tax forms or not, you most likely pay taxes anyway.

Another hunch I have is that if my hagwon is not taking taxes out of my paycheck, the IRS is not bothering to chase me down, since the amount of taxes that I'd owe as a part time English teacher would not be enough for them to go through the trouble. The IRS is probably more interested in frying bigger fish like the Ken Lays and the Jeff Skillings who have multimillion dollar accounts in Switzerland.

[peter07]

[RJjr]

I got a bill this month from the IRS for $20,088.58 because I didn't report a securities loss in 2005. I'm still working on getting that worked out with them.

[freshking]

[dogshed]

[Scotticus]

[lastat06513]

Actually, it WAS about $75,000 back around 2003.
But now it is around $85,700 (as of TY06).
But one of the above posters is right, you won't make anything above that figure working in Korea......Saudi Arabia maybe, but not Korea


And if people are so worried about filing, just print it out and complete the form....if I could do it, you obvious can fill out the form too, am I right?

[slow_life]

To answer that question, I discovered that if those guys do return to the states in the future and begin filing tax returns, a big red flag pops up on the IRS computers........like, where have they been for 20 years? So, you get hauled in, interrogated and when they discover you worked overseas and didn't file, the IRS will demand reports for annual income and calculate those taxes plus there are fines and interest that accumulates on those past due taxes (15% I'm told)..........in other words, anyone who is too lazy to fill out a tax return each year is also stupid. It's not worth the risk.

[lastat06513]

[dogshed]

[lastat06513]

It didn't happen to me or to anyone else I know who had been outside the US for a certain amount of time.
As long as I filed something to show I did, I was in the clear, no questions asked, not even by the IRS.....
Tax form 2555 is pretty much just an accountability form to show that you were outside the country because most of the time, in the eyes of the feds, you are being taxed by the host government in the place you work.

I think the website is intended more for people like businessmen who purposely stay outside the US to evade paying taxes on the millions they make each year on their businesses. But for the average ESL teacher that makes on average about $45,000 (and that is a conservative estimate based on an institute job in a place like Dubai), filing a Tax form 2555 before the end of the 36-month grace period would suffice......

How do I know this?
Let me just say it is good to have close relatives who are CPAs
No need to depend on a decrepit website

[skeeterses]

[bacasper]