Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CeleryMan]

I just looked at my year-to-date income statement for 2007 and freaked out how much my Employer is withholding!

Dumb question number 1.

What does these terms mean and how much go to National Pension?

Dumb question number 2.

Shouldn't these amount be less than 10% overall for foreign employees?

Last dumb question.

How much if at all can I expected to be refunded ..

Again, my apologies if this is a redundant posting, all feedback or guidance to a similar thread is appreciated

[CeleryMan]

Yikes.

Garbled terms are "seh-ek" and "ill ban kkong jae" ...

[Qinella]

세액 is taxes. Not sure about the other.. standard deduction? What percentage was it for both amounts?

[CeleryMan]

"Seh eck" portion is about 4.5%. What scares is how much more is deducted for medical, national pension, and other mysterious fees which are 5 times as more???

[dogbert]

I think the National Tax Service website has, in its English-language pages somewhere, a tax calculator.

Try visiting www.nts.go.kr and see if it doesn't have information on withholdings.

[Qinella]

Yeah that sounds way off. You should ask them to give you an itemized list. Healthcare and pension deductions should be no more than 100k total, I think.. are the mysterious fees your household bills that you pay through the school, or do you pay those on your own? Also, I think 4.5% if a bit high for tax unless you're making like 3-4mil a month. If you have the standard ~2 million won contract, it should be 3.3% at the most.

[Samantha]

the 4.5% might be the pension payment....that is what you pay 4.5% from you and 4.5% from the school for a total of 9% every month.

I'm not sure about the rest but I think that might be the first one you were asking about.

[Alan Partidge]

National Pension comes from a table, but your contribution is pretty much 4.5% of your base salary. Example, 2,400,000 = 108,900.

Medical Insurance is 2.385% of your base salary. Example, 2,400,000 = 57,240.

Three figures are then added together and multiplied by 30%: total gross salary (base + overtime) + National Pension + medical insurance.
Example, 2,500,000 (100,000 overtime) + 108,900 + 57,240 = 2,666,140

2666,140 x 30% = 799,842. This figure is then subtracted from your total gross salary. Example, 2,666,140 - 799,842 = 1,866,298. This last figure is your taxable income. Income tax comes from a set table.

Residence tax is 10% of income tax.

[CeleryMan]

Sory for the blatant ignorance here but what is this "refund" folks keep talking about once you depart korea?

For the sake of simplicity let's say I paid 10,000,000 total in taxes, how much can I expect to get reimbursed? I assume it's a fixed percentage of how much tax one has paid?

Thanks for all your comments,

[Alan Partidge]

Depending on what country you're from, I think you can receive your total pension contribution, i.e. your contribution and the school's. It can depend on how legit your school is. If they have just been deducting youer 4.5% and not paying the other 4.5% you could out of luck.