Korean Job Discussion Forums

[projectgenesis]

Hi, is anyone else from England having problems aquiring a Certificate of Residence from their tax office. My tax office is a nightmare because I don't ever seem to be able to speak to a living person and thats after hanging on the phone for 20 mins at a time! Is there something else I can bring to Korea to be exempt from paying tax for the year? Will they accept a P60, passport, etc?

[Andyc24_uk]

I'm pretty sure you can print something off from the HMRC website... but the question is, why do you want to?

You CANNOT escape being taxed in both countries. You'll either be taxed in Korea, at a rate of ~4%; or you'll be taxed in the UK, at a rate of 20%.

If you don't fill anything at all in and come to Korea and work, then you'll be taxed a very low amount by the Korean government on your Korean Won salary. You'll be taxed nothing in the UK, (unless you have savings or property), as you won't have earned any income there. The UK tax people have no idea how much you earn here, no way of finding out and no right to demand that information. Any money you transfer back to the UK by bank transfer will be untaxed as well - again, the Government does not track and tax remittances. As long as you're out of the UK for 90 days or more in a tax year (which you will be if you're here on a year's contract), you'll be treated as 'not ordinarily resident' in the UK for tax purposes.

If, however, you fill in the Certificate of Residence, you'll have to pay UK tax rates on your Korean earnings. I really can't see any logical reason for you to do this.* If your school is asking you to do it, I suspect it may be them trying to get out of paying their share of tax - your director has to match your tax contribution, so if you aren't paying tax, it probably saves him some money... I'd advise conveniently 'forgetting' about it, if that's your situation...

*The possible exception for this is if you're working for the public school system through the EPIK programme. There are some posts on here suggesting that the first two years worked under EPIK can be tax-free - but it's somewhat confusing as to how true this is, and who qualifies for this and how. I don't work for EPIK, so you'd need to seek further advice if this is the case with you.

[Andyc24_uk]

Mods - Any chance we can sort out a sticky for this topic? It seems to be an FAQ on here! I'm more than happy to write something up if needed?

[projectgenesis]

Hi, thanks for the info and I will be going through the public school system. I was told by my recruiter to fill in such a form to be exempt. I am really confused now!!