I don’t know how he finds this stuff so reliably, and gets it out so quickly, but Brian from JND tells us about an article from the East Windup Chronicle outlining how foreigners who pay tax in Korea can get a tax-break from the Korean Government.
The form is the 유가환급금 신청 의뢰서, and it’s a tax credit meant to offset the bat-spit crazy oil-prices over the summer.
The application deadline is October 20th, so you’d better move fast if you like money, and especially if you make between 24 and 36 million won. There’s a form to fill out, and you’ll probably have to ask for it at your workplace.
More at Brian’s site, and the article linked above.
15/10/2008 at 6:48 pm Permalink
I just talked to my manager.. She said that our accounting office sent in the forms for all the foreigners, but that the government hasn’t decided yet whether or not to allow us to receive the refund. Let me know if anyone gets the money. I’m a little worried if my hagwon might try to pocket it all.
15/10/2008 at 7:20 pm Permalink
Thanks for the love. You can download the form from one of the many Naver blogs on which it’s attached. When I looked a few hours ago it was in the first blog result on a Naver search.
The “submit” button is still obscured by something, but I managed to find a corner and click. Any body else having problems?
16/10/2008 at 4:20 pm Permalink
I just printed out the Windup article and asked my boss (I work at a hagwon) about it. He looked into it and told me that you need to have 2007 income for it to happen (but it indeed should happen if that’s the case). I only got here in late August.
16/10/2008 at 4:21 pm Permalink
. . . of 2008, that is.
16/10/2008 at 4:49 pm Permalink
Thanks for the info, Jaim.
16/10/2008 at 5:03 pm Permalink
Actually, I just went through the entire process (I work at a consulting firm) and it ultimately ended up taking about an hour of my time.
Essentially what I had to do was sign up for internet banking at my major bank, go to their site upon signing up and registering, then heading over to the site and working everything out through computer.
If you have a facebook account you can go here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=45775441304
It’s an event I started that more descriptively shows the steps I went through. Hope it can help.
17/10/2008 at 1:09 am Permalink
Americans and I think Canadians are exempt from paying income taxes for two years anyways. Ask whoever is in charge of accounting at your school or hagwon for your pay slip,
it should have the deductions including taxes and contributions to the pension fund. If you find that as an American or Canadian, you are being charged income tax, then that could be an opportunity for you to collect more every month, rather than the lump sum of only a couple hundred thousand won.
17/10/2008 at 9:15 am Permalink
I’m having it withheld, but I’m supposed to get it back at the end of my contract (12 months). I don’t think I could change that, but maybe other people have different situations.
17/10/2008 at 9:16 am Permalink
(I’m an American btw.)
17/10/2008 at 2:21 pm Permalink
I’m also having income tax deducted from my paycheck and will have it refunded to me when I leave the country. Like Ian in comment 1 I’ve heard that the accounting office for my hagwon has already taken care of the paperwork; I certainly hope that’s the case.
Any word on how long it will take for the refunds to be issued?
18/10/2008 at 6:40 am Permalink
Oops, just saw on the FaceBook listing that the refunds are due out in December.
Interestingly, when I mentioned the tax credit to my Korean co-workers at work this afternoon none of them had heard of it. Thanks for making me the “heads up” guy at work, Hub of Sparkle!
18/10/2008 at 10:01 am Permalink
No prob, eh? My foreign supervisor had to do some pushing in order to get things rolling as well.
18/10/2008 at 11:36 am Permalink
Make sure that what is being held back is your pension payment and not income tax. Contributions to the Korean pension system is what gets refunded, not the income tax.