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Tour answers expat teacher tax questions
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2903537
April 14, 2009
Does an Irish citizen teaching English at a Korean elementary school pay income tax? What about an American teacher who initially signed a two-year contract with a local school and later extended the agreement?

Korea�s tax officials will answer these questions during nationwide consulting sessions for local school authorities.

The National Tax Service said yesterday its tax auditors would visit 21 regional education offices from April 10 to 16 to meet with some 3,200 local school administrators to answer questions about tax paperwork for foreign employees. The number of foreigners teaching English at local schools has grown 15 times over the past seven years, from just 361 in 2002 to 5,553 in 2008.

�We decided to conduct the tax consulting service sessions as tax-related inquiries from local schools employing foreign teachers are exploding,� the tax agency said in a statement. The sessions, starting in Daegu on April 10, will take place at each central education office, ending in Jeju on April 15.

And in case you were wondering: Our Irish teacher is not eligible for a tax exemption unless he works at a local college or institution of higher education, and neither is the American teacher once her initial contract expires.


By Jung Ha-won [[email protected]]