Korean Job Discussion Forums

[UKsimon]

I understand that you have to get a certificate to avoid paying tax in Korea, but how does the UK gov. tax you on your 'worldwide' income?


Thanks.

[UKsimon]

Do you get taxed on everything you send to the UK?

If so, is that money taxed as if it were you earnings from inside the UK? i.e. you get 6k+ tax free allowance?

[Linz]

I called the Inland Revenue about this recently. By getting a resident certificate you're saying you're UK resident which means they can tax you as much as if you were working in the UK. If you don't bother then you are considered "non-resident" which means you don't need to pay UK tax, but ONLY if you are away for an entire tax year or more. That means you need to be away from April-April, so if you start teaching this August, you would need to be away until April 2012 to avoid the Inland Revenue chasing you for tax when you get back.

[Capo]

we have a double taxation treaty, which basically means you will be taxed on korean income here and uk income there. However, it might be prudent to fill in the P85 form to declare your self non resident for tax purposes, which also means you can start claiming interest on any savings gross instead of net, in addition if you have any inevestments in the uk you will not liable for capital gains tax. However there are certain time restrictions on these benifits, for example you can't spend more than 90 days in the uk in any tax year for it to count as non resident and you may have capital gain liabilities if you return within 7 years of leaving.

Now as for tax in Korea, since working at public school I haven't paid tax. When I started I told the administrators I'm from the UK so I have a 2 year tax holiday, so I don't pay tax and they have never deducted any. I didn't give them any residency certificate, for one UK doesn't issue such certificates, I'm sure a passport will suffice if they are being anal about it.

[Capo]

if you still have questions i suggest trawling through www.hmrc.co.uk