Setting up Korean tax withholding as a foreign teacher: what to file and when
Before your first paycheck lands, your school needs a few signed forms to start withholding your income tax correctly. Here is which forms matter, what order they go in, and the one election you only get to make once.
Park English2026-10-083 min read
Somewhere in your first week, between your ARC application and your phone contract, your director's assistant will hand you a stack of Korean forms and ask you to sign. Most of it is for your health insurance and pension. A smaller part is for tax, and it's worth knowing what you're signing before the first payday arrives.
The forms, in the order they usually come up
| Form (Korean name) | What it does | When to file |
|---|---|---|
| 근로소득자 소득ㆍ세액공제신고서 (Employee's Income and Tax Deduction Report) | Tells payroll your basic details and dependents, usually just you | Before the first pay run |
| 소득세 원천징수세액 조정신청서 (Withholding Tax Rate Adjustment Request) | Lets you choose 80 percent, 100 percent, or 120 percent of the standard withholding | Optional, anytime, stays until you change it |
| 외국인근로자 단일세율적용신청서 (Flat 19 percent rate election) | Switches you from the progressive tax brackets to a flat rate | Optional, through your employer |
For most new teachers, the first form is the only one that actually needs your signature in week one. The other two are choices, not requirements.
What happens automatically
Korean employers are required to withhold income tax from monthly pay according to the simplified withholding table, a schedule set by the tax service based on your monthly salary and number of dependents. You don't calculate anything yourself. Workers can choose to have their employer withhold at 80 percent, 100 percent, or 120 percent of the table amount, and if no choice is made the default is 100 percent. Most teachers never touch this. It mostly matters if you'd rather have a bit more held back now than owe it at settlement time in February.
The flat rate decision
So here's the one real choice. South Korea lets qualifying foreign workers elect a flat 19 percent national tax rate on employment income instead of the progressive brackets, which with the local income tax surcharge works out to a combined 20.9 percent. Once elected, the flat rate applies for a 20-year period starting from your first day of work in Korea, and you apply either when you file an annual return or to your employer at the time of monthly withholding or year-end settlement.
The catch is real: you cannot claim most standard deductions once you choose the flat rate. For a teacher on a typical hagwon salary with few deductions to begin with, this usually isn't a close call either way, but it's worth asking your school's payroll contact to run both numbers before you sign anything. And note the clock: the 19 percent option is confirmed for foreign workers who start their job in Korea no later than December 31, 2026, so confirm with your employer's HR or a tax accountant that the window still applies when you're reading this.
Separate from all of this, teachers from certain passport countries can also apply for a tax treaty exemption that works differently and has its own timeline. That's its own process, worth asking your placement coordinator about once you're settled.
The part nobody tells you: school admin staff handle this paperwork maybe once or twice a year per foreign hire, so double-check your first payslip shows the right dependent count and withholding choice rather than assuming it's correct.