Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crescent]

Posting for a friend (no account):

Last week I the tax office tracked me down, saying I owed them a 908,000won adjustment from 2010. They couldn't find me due to changed addresses, even though I've always been registered. Anyway, they showed me the official adjustment, and apparently my employer only reported my salary as 1,200,000won, therefore making their monthly with-holding payments very low.

I thought it was fishy, so I went to my old hakwan and picked up a copy of my pay receipts. They deducted over a million in taxes from my salary for the year, but my official adjustment from the tax office shows they only paid about 240,000.

Now, I'm stuck paying the tax office money I already paid the employer in 2010.

Anyone with experience and advice?

[Captain Corea]

Why not show the tax office the payslips and bank records. If the taxes have already been paid... to the employer. Then the employer is on the hook.

[wylies99]

Did you file a return?

[crescent]

I'll be posting on crescents account from here on this thread:

The tax return was filed by my employer.

The tax office has already garnisheed my wages. I need to get this money back.

[Troglodyte]

If you have your pay slips then it's a simple matter of going there and showing them to the tax office. They will see that you DID pay it and that the fault lies with your former employer. They'll go after your employer.

If they've already taken the money from your current salary, did you ask them why? Did you ask them how to get it back? If not, ask them these things. They'll probably be able to tell you fairly quickly how to resolve the matter.

[crescent]

[ontheway]

Income taxes, and especially withholding taxes, are dangerous, evil, and bad for the economy. As the OP has discovered, even when you think you have paid, you can be forced to pay again.

Income taxes are a personal liability. Your employer - or bank, business, corporation, partner or boss if you are a contractor; anyone who pays you any taxable income amount - withholds the taxes and remits them, but this does not relieve you from your obligation to pay the total amount due. These individuals or organizations are acting as your agent. If they fail to remit the funds, you are still liable for the full amount; if they underwithhold or report your income improperly, you are still liable for the full amount. You are also liable for any penalties and interest due.

So, the OP has discovered this dangerous, evil aspect of the income tax. In the US, with the IRS, it's even worse.

Hopefully, the OP will be able to recover from his old boss. The Tax Office may pursue the old boss, but if they can get their money from the OP, then they may be satisfied. They may go after the old boss, but their primary mission of collecting the money can be satisfied by collecting from the OP, leaving the OP in the position of collecting from his dishonest agent.

It's true that it's the government that put him into this danerous relationship by mandating the Income Tax and mandating that payors of income act as tax remitting agents. It isn't fair or just. But it's the law.

In addition, OP, you should check into your pension payments. If you were enrolled at all, it's likely that your boss also underreported your salary and only paid based on 1.2 million income. You need to go after your old boss for this as well.

And while there is no financial benefit to you, if you had the National Health Insurance, your old boss probably cheated on those payments as well. One more place to report him, although you may end up paying more as a result.

Your old boss was a crook. Is he still in business? Does he have assets to go after? You should use the Pension Office and Tax Office as much as possible to collect these amounts. You should also go to the Labor Office, although this may not fall under their jurisdiction.


Sad to say, and I still prefer being an employee, but an Independent Contractor who has a decent contract with higher pay who receives all of his income with no deductions and makes his own Tax, Health and Pension payments can avoid this problem of being cheated by an agent.

[Troglodyte]

[ontheway]

[Captain Corea]

I have no idea why you're talking about income tax in the US regarding this issue.

Ontheway, I appreciate your experience as a CPA in the US, but I'm guessing you're not one here. Am I right?

[alongway]

Go to the labour board. If the employer withheld money for taxes and didn't send it to the tax office, and then you had to pay it later, he was illegally withholding money. Since it's been paid again, they'll probably order him to pay the money to your friend.

[crescent]

Update.
The tax office does have a department dedicated to sorting this type of situation out. They said they will have to do an audit of the business, which they added was a mess. No word on how long it will take to see results.