I called the ATO (Australian Tax Office) this afternoon to find out the tax implications of working in Korea. There is a calculator here which will ask you a series of questions and then tell you if you are still considered an Australian resident for tax purposes. To summarise... either way the ATO screws you.
Australian Residents
Australia has a tax treaty with South Korea. I am not sure on all the technical details but I will try to summarise. If you are an Australian resident and you give your employer in South Korea a letter of Australian residency from the ATO you won’t pay any tax in Korea but you will have to lodge a tax return back in Australia. If you are lazy and don’t give your employer a letter of Australian residency you will be taxed in Korea AND in Australia. Yes, you read that right. Tax will be taken out of your pay in Korea and you will still have to lodge a tax return in Australia. On your Australian tax return I think you can claim the tax paid in Korea so in the long run you wouldn’t be any worse off, but it would mean you have less money in your monthly pay packet.
Non Australian Residents
If you are not considered an Australian resident you don’t have to pay any tax to Australia on money you earn in Korea. HOWEVER, if you have investments or savings in Australia you will have to lodge a tax return in Australia and pay tax (at a significantly higher rate) on any income generated from those investments.
Stage 2 Update
I posted my Stage 2 documents last Saturday (20th). They sat in the Australia Post post office all weekend and for most of Monday (21st) too. According to the tracking service they were picked up late in the afternoon and were processed in Brisbane at 2:45AM Tuesday (23rd) morning and on their way to Korea. They were delivered to the Seoul Gone2Korea office on Wednesday (24th) at 3:30PM where someone did a final check to make sure everything was correct before forwarding them onto EPIK. According to James at Gone2Korea I am among the first of the applicants he is managing to get my documents to EPIK ^^. Fingers crossed it means I will get to work in Daejeon (my preferred city).
Australian Residency Certificate and Tax questions
The next thing I need to organise is my Australian Residency Certificate. This will mean I don’t have to pay tax on my income in Korea ^^. Unfortunately it looks like I will have to pay tax in Australia on any money I earn in Korea. Talk about greedy. I am not even in Australia using any government resources but I still have to pay tax? Pathetic. Anyway. Rules are rules. Some things I need to investigate
- In Korea I will be provided with housing. Do I need to pay some sort of fringe benefit tax on that? Will my accommodation appear on my pay slip as a cost?
- Will I still be classified as an Australian resident after June 2013 (the start of the new tax year in Australia)? Reading the residency rules here I am not sure. Technically I will be living in Korea so I won’t “always” have lived in Australia.
- How the Korean currency I earn is converted into Australian dollars for tax purposes.
I guess on the plus side as an education professional there will be some things I can claim as a tax deduction (see here). Also, from July 2013 the tax free threshold in Australia will go up to $18200 (see here) so fingers crossed most of what I earn will slide under that.
