Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bulgogiboy]

If you work in Seoul do you have to pay money into a pension???

Can any people get the pension money at the end of the contract or is it only for the golden children of Canada?? How about tax refunds?? Again, is it only a special deal for Canadians because they teach English better than us from other English-speaking countries?

P.S. I mean no offence to Canadians, it just pi**es me off that they seem to get special benefits/preferences over other native speaking teachers from the UK, NZ, OZ, etc.

And a small query, don't alot of Canadians speak French as their first language, and not English?

BB

[prairieboy]

I don't think the pension lump-sum refund is based on English teaching abilities. It's based on the governments of Canada and South Korea entering somekind of reciprocal agreement where Canadian "workers" in Korea have their pension contributions and those made by their employer refunded to them. We Canadians are then supposed to turn that money over to the government for our CPP (Canada Pension Plan). It's the same for Americans except it goes to Social Security.

It's not exactly free money to do with as you please if you want to keep everything legal and above board.

Because it's a reciprocal agreement, that means that Korean's working in Canada and paying money to CPP, they will have that money refunded to them for the Korean Pension plan.

The fact that your country does not have such an agreement is not based on your English teaching ability but just on that particular country's inability to enter into a formal agreement with Korea on Pension. Maybe you should petition your consulate. If enough of you raise a furour over this then maybe you will be able to get a pension refund when you finally do decide to leave Korea.

As for tax refunds, if you have paid more tax than you should have, then you should be entitled to a tax refund in Korea. Check it out at your local tax office. Be sure to get an official tax reciept from them while you are there. This will also help you to determine if your employer paid the withholding taxes s/he has taken from your salary every month. If you've paid more than what has been reported to the tax office then ask your employer about it, likely they are keeping the money and hoping you wouldn't check it out (that's theft).

I hope this clears up the confusion.