Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alphalfa]

so as it may seem after crunching some numbers.

Background: Today is my last working day in an after-school programme
at an elementary school in Incheon. I resigned after 8 months into my second contract year at the school. In fact, the company who oversees the after-school programme informed me the first Monday after the Chuseok holiday that THEY cannot afford to maintain paying my salary
as a full time teacher- the student numbers are way down and there has not been any influx of 'new' students to the programme. The company offered a choice to me -to transfer to another school in Gyesan to complete my one year contract. I declined and agreed to stay until my pay day in November (which is today).

The company has been paying me my salary for the past three months.
Before that, there was enough collected fees from registered students to pay me my salary. Well, today I checked my bank account for the amount of pay deposited. I got a surprise... The amount deducted from my contract salary was KW299,240.

Since February this year, my monthly take home salary was 2,050,380. It breaks down like this : 2,200,000 - 98,550(pension) - 51,070(taxes). The deductions amount to KW149,620. Make a mental note of this number.
If you multiply this number by two you get KW299,240.

QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU:
Why would I be double taxed and have to contribute a double amount of pension?

In case you may be wondering, the additional deductions are not for utility bills and apartment maintanence fees. My supervisor will meet with me on Monday to go over the amount I owe for the apartment bills.

Of particular note : I took it upon myself earlier this week to have the administration office at the school issue me a 영어 인건비 지출 which shows each monthly salary (since the beginning of contract) and each months' pension and tax deductions. For 2006. 11 the form clearly shows
a SINGLE deduction for pension and a SINGLE deduction for taxes. I have no reason to doubt the SCHOOL.

On Monday, I will :
1. meet with the supervisor and try to get a clear and concise answer that explains the additional deduction of KW 149,620. I will be writing this down and then...
2. visit the adminstration office at the school to inform them of this. They will need to change the single deductions for pension and taxes for 2006.11 to reflect this. Should the administration not make the changes(because they think the form numbers are correct) , then clearly something is not right.
3. visit the pension office with these documents -including the amount of salary deposited on Nov 17th. If the 영어 인건비 지출 form indicates a
DOUBLE deduction for BOTH pension and taxes this may be a 'red flag'
to them that indicates something is not right.

in Korea..
there's alaways something to mess up the ending to a good run.

Help me make sense of this...

[spliff]

Make sure you go to the tax office, too. And, let it slip at the meeting that you are going to visit both places w/ paper work provided. And, if you are American and within your first two years here you shouldn't have to pay any Korean taxes.