Korean Job Discussion Forums

Big Mac · Joined: 17 Sep 2005

I just realized, four years later, that my first employer in Korea stole my tax money.

For some reason I got curious today and called the tax office to find out why I never got a tax refund from my first employer. Ever since that job, my new employers have always given me tax refunds. I wondered why he never did.

Sure enough, it turns out that he registered me as an independent contractor instead of an employee and only paid tax for one month of my 12-month contract.

He deducted tax off every one of my pays during my time there. But he obviously never paid the money to the tax office.

I'm going to file a complaint with the tax office. They told me they will do an investigation. I've got nothing to lose at this point, and I'd like to see that crook get in trouble. He's probably been doing the same thing to all his other employees.

I had many fights with this guy back in the day. He insisted he didn't have to pay pension or medical insurance and I fought him for it and got it. He hates my guts and made my life miserable for the rest of my year there.

I even remember asking him for evidence that he was paying my taxes, and he showed me a slip from the tax office, probably for the one month that he did pay. So I always thought he had paid, but had just pocketed my refund. Turns out he pocketed it all.

It will feel good to get revenge. I hope the tax man comes down hard on him. But this is Korea and I doubt he'll get any more than a slap on the wrist.

Straphanger · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Chilgok, Korea

Big Mac · Joined: 17 Sep 2005

I don't care about the money actually. The money isn't mine. It belongs to the tax office.

I might get a small refund out of it once my taxes for that year are finalized properly.

My main motivation is to expose a dishonest hogwan owner to the authorities. A hogwan owner who treated me like crap for a year. So yes, it is revenge.

red_devil · Joined: 30 Jun 2008 Location: Korea

If the guy was already bad news, you should have done your homework. It's pretty easy to check if your employer is paying taxes. Not to mention why even accept a job and work the year there if "he made your life miserable" and "hated your guts"? And it took you 4 years??? I smell troll. Or just a moron.

Big Mac · Joined: 17 Sep 2005

Oh come on, I'm not a troll. I think I've been around here long enough for people to know I'm no troll.

It was my first job in Korea and I've learned a lot since then. I think you misunderstood my original post. I have not been working there for the past four years. It would have been stupid for me to stay that long. I finished out my contract and moved on, never to return again, writing it off as experience.

Yes, it was miserable, but I decided to stay because I had made a commitment to work there for one year and wanted to honour my commitment despite all the troubles. The school had a great curriculum, great kids and a great academic supervisor. I enjoyed my job there, but didn't enjoy dealing with this idiot and all the little tricks he played to screw me over. I'm surprised he never actually fired me...but I always did my job and he could never find a valid enough reason to get rid of me.

I moved on and have never had problems like that since because I know what to look for when looking for a job.

I just never bothered to check with the tax office to see if he actually paid the taxes until now.

As I said, I made efforts at the time to check to see if he had been paying my tax by asking him for evidence, which he did show me. Trouble is, he only paid that once and never again. I fell for his little trick, and yes that was dumb of me.

That being said...I'm the only one in the history of the school who has ever clued in to his shady ways. Some teachers, who are some of the most naive people I've ever met in my life have signed on again and again, and love the guy. They always ignored me when I told them what was going on...but never complained when they got pension and health insurance out of it. The guy is smart enough to fool them, but not me. So who's the moron?

buymybook · Joined: 21 Feb 2005 Location: Telluride

Meggiebea · Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Location: Uijeongbu, South Korea

Hey there are a lot of people out there that don't check these things. Sometimes you don't think to look because you assume it's ok, other times you're afraid of what can happen etc.

But I am going through a very similar situation.
I did do the research and learned that I was entitled to a tax refund, mostly due to posts on Dave's ESL. So last year I asked about my taxes. It was a huge fight, no one had ever gotta tax returns before, but eventually I got a return of about 1.2 million.

This year my principal was fired and the owner is acting as principal. We asked for our tax return, he said we didn't get one. Then he said they needed a month to calculate taxes. Then they said the old principal had stolen the money.

The jerk is also the owner of two other schools so I contacted some of them and asked if they had gotten tax refunds. None had. Actually some people have worked for 6 or 7 years for the guy and have NEVER gotten a tax refund.

So last week I went to the tax office, as it was explained to me the school calculates each teachers taxes, how much is owed and how much should be refunded. The school holds the tax deductions during the year and after the calculations are done they pay the tax office what is owing and pay the employees their tax refunds.

The people at the tax office were very surprised to learn that none of us had been paid. They printed up my calculations and the amount I was supposed to have returned to me, over 800,000 won. They told me to take the NTS calculations to my boss and demand that he pay me. But all he did was throw the paper at me and threaten to sue me for disrupting the school and making difficulties.

The problem is that the tax office does not have my money, so they told me that they can't really help me.

This is illegal right? This is tax fraud right?

There are over 30 teachers who work for this guy that didn't get a tax refund this year, or ever.

Any suggestions about how we can get our money back?

Dodgy Al · Joined: 15 May 2004 Location: Seoul

If these refunds were paid directly to the employee, this would be a non-issue.

Please keep us updated on any developments BM.

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

None of my employers ever filed for a refund for me. That's the expected situation for the overwhelming majority of foreigners in Korea.
By the way, I had filed for the gas tax things, and I didn't receive a dime for some reason. I never figured out why. I will check out the tax office next week.

Tobias · Joined: 02 Jun 2008

If you do make hay with this, the ex-employer will want your IRS 6166 for the year in question. Do you have that?