Korean Job Discussion Forums

[geldedgoat]

I just got finished talking with my coteacher, NTS (tax), and NPS (pension) about this, and discovered the following: renumeration for flights is NOT taxed, housing allowances (i.e. you have elected to find your own housing and receive an additional monthly stipend) have always been taxed, housing paid by your employer directly to the owner of your housing is NOT taxed, and pension should be calculated based on your taxable income.

http://www.nts.go.kr/eng/resources/resour_21.asp?minfoKey=MINF7420080211223143

From this page, download documents 34 (Tax Guide for Foreign Taxpayers in Korea(2010)) and 33 (Individual Income Tax and Benefit Guide for Foreigners 2010 ).

Document 33, starting on page 119, lists all non-taxable income.

Document 34, page 45, defines income for the purposes of pension and health insurance as ALL taxable income.

This is a calculator for determining how much you should be paying in taxes.

[ekimswish]

[quote="geldedgoat"]I just got finished talking with my coteacher, NTS (tax), and NPS (pension) about this, and discovered the following: renumeration for flights is NOT taxed, housing allowances (i.e. you have elected to find your own housing and receive an additional monthly stipend) have always been taxed, housing paid by your employer directly to the owner of your housing is NOT taxed, and pension should be calculated based on your taxable income.quote]

Without a doubt.

I totally agree that all of this should be based solely on your taxable income, which included health insurance. If health insurance is going all rogue and taxing areas not previously taxed, then I want my income tax and pension to follow. If income tax and pension are not going to follow because they see it as non-taxable, then I want my health insurance to do the same.

All I want is consistency.

[geldedgoat]

I just reread the section on non-taxable income, and I think it says that housing allowances actually should be excluded from taxation.

[sojusucks]

[wylies99]

So this is coming from the Korean health insurance agency?

[jrwhite82]

I'm not sure what the situation is on the back taxes yet. But I will try to find some info and update.

I can comment on budget cuts though. I am currently at one of the biggest elementary school in Goyang (over 2000 kids) and we have two NETs. My coworker is finishing her contract in December and we had another teacher lined up. Unfortunately, my handler just received word that our budget was cut and that we would not be hiring another NET. So now we only have the one teacher for 2000+ students.....Ugh.

Good thing we just opened two brand new English Zones with 60" LCD Touchscreens, a Virtual Reality Studio, two stages, etc...

I spoke with another NET from a large elementary school this weekend and it appears he is in the same boat. So that is two large schools getting cut down to one teacher.

[geldedgoat]

[olsanairbase]

While this seems focused on Korean Tax Law it is important to remember whatever Korea does won't impact you back in the States.

Under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion of the IRC you are exempt from paying taxes overseas up to 80,000 dollars per year back home.

[jrwhite82]