Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Decisions]

Hi, very specific question to any UK teachers teaching in Korea who have gone through the tax exemption process for their job;

I am about to start a job with EPIK and was told to call up the HMRC, (tax office) and get a residency certificate to be able to be tax exempt in Korea. When I called I spoke to a lady at HMRC about getting this certificate and she put forward a seemingly very logical argument which went along the lines of; "Why would we give you a residency certificate for the UK when you're not going to be a resident because you'll be in Korea?" I argued this a lot and to cut a long story short basically they want me to write a long letter to them explaining my situation and they will try to get back to me sometime "hopefully at the end of March" with some "ideas" of what to do.

I think I have two options; either write this letter and get taxed hard for a couple of months which will blow, or just go ahead and get a residency certificate in spite of what has been said and ignoring what I have been told by HMRC.

Has anyone done this and can anyone help? I would go ahead and just get the residency certificate as it seems like the obviously logical thing to do but it feels incredibly dodgy to not do what I'm being told by HMRC. Not to mention that to avoid tax in the UK I'm going to have to declare that I'm leaving the country to the HMRC, (through a P85 form) so they would surely then become aware that I also can't apply for a resident's certificate.

Any help would be massively appreciated. This has all become absurdly complicated and what would have appeared to me to be straightforward is clearly not.

P.S- Apparently a residency certificate is the only way to gain tax exemption in Korea if you are from the UK so I don't think there's any other way around it unless someone says otherwise.

[Malislamusrex]

Yes, ignore what she said.

If you speak to her again, tell her she is wrong and ask to speak to her boss.

[ttompatz]

You only get the tax break if you work at a public school.
You only get the tax break for your first 2 years in Korea.

If you don't get the residence certificate then your tax rate at a public school is only 1.8% of your gross income (it's not like you are going to miss it).

IF you are taxed as a resident in Korea then you don't, under a bilateral treaty, have to pay taxes on that income to the UK.

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