Korean Job Discussion Forums

[creeper1]

[Welsh Canadian]

[Sophos]

My recruiter has got back to me now about the UK tax thing. They say:
"If you do not have a UK residential certificates, you will have to pay both of Korean income tax and UK income tax. But if you have the documents, you do not have to pay Korean income tax at least.
It is extremely difficult for you to get one after you arrive in Korea (which is almost impossible) so you�d better apply one to your tax office before you come. It is not essential, but annually it can be quite a lot of money, so I really suggest you to get one before you come in to Korea."

As far as I could work out from the UK tax website we would not be classed as resident in the UK anyway because we will be living outside of the UK for more than 183 days so we would not be subject to UK tax anyway. This is really worrying me now - we're leaving in 3 weeks and have loads of stuff to do before we get to Korea without worrying about tax!

[Davew125]

[Linz]

It's correct that pension contributions aren't transferable for British people due to the UK not having a reciprocal agreement with Korea. But from what I can see we don't need to pay UK income tax. The HMRC say;

[valkerie]

Had a mate look into this very recently, as she left.

There is a Brit-Korea agreement to transfer the pension credits (rather than get the cash as some nationalities can) BUT

BUt

BUT

it cannot be done when you leave. You have to wait until you are of retirement age and then they contact Korea and get the info.

Somehow I cannot imagine trying to do that.

[jenna740]

At a public school, we do not have to pay tax for the first two years.

I have recently just got my letter.

I sent a letter to my local tax office requesting a certificate of residency. I said that I am working at a public school in South Korea and needed proof that I was a UK citizen so that I was exempt from tax. Very simple. Didn't take too long.

Why do people write on these forums if they do not know what they are on about?!

[jenna740]

AND it's free!

[gideonseaton]

Afraid I have to re-ignite this discussion and again try to decifer exactly what is going on.

OK yes so getting the certificate of residency is easy and means you dont have to pay tax in korea.

However does that now mean you are liable for tax on your Korean earnings back in the UK.

Or are you somehow exempt? I guess a proffessional or someone who has done this before and knows the results knows best.

I dont want to get the Certificate only to find i have to pay a massive 20% uk tax .... oh and did any of you bother with the p85 .. or whatever it was?

[saram_]

[JD_Tiberius]

[Daelim]

What about seding money home to a current account every month?

I really have no idea and just presumed because I didn't live in the UK I wouldn't need to pay UK taxes.

However, I have read about remittance tax that suggests that any foreign income I send home in liable for UK taxation. As it stands my girlfriend and I send a large chunk home every month and I really don't want it to be taxed.

Does anyone have a solid answer to this discussion?

[Hotpants]

Daelim - there may be a remittance charge, but I've never heard of a remittance TAX. You may get tax deducted from any interest that you accrue as a result of your savings deposit, but no one should be deducting income tax at your bank. That's not your bank's department.

[Setaro]

Unless you informed Her Majesty's Tax Office, they will have no idea you're working abroad, and thus can't tax you.

Either just pay the minuscule Korean tax, or just show them your passport and say that's proof of British residency, maybe they won't know what to do and they'll let you off with Korean tax too.