Korean Tax Information

for AgriVoltaics2023 conference participants

Not all foreign corporations or non-residents will be liable for the tax - the foreign corporation or non-resident who is obliged to pay VAT is only limited to ones which have domestic place of business in Korea. 

Who would need to pay VAT to the Korean tax authorities?

In the following, the Korean tax authorities will provide you with information regarding your ticket booking for the conference. Please read this information thoroughly so that you can make your own final assessment as to whether or not you will be required to pay taxes in Korea for your conference participation.

Following your conference registration, you will receive an invoice with 0% tax. However, this does not automatically mean that you are tax exempt. 

From the Korean perspective, Conexio-PSE (the conference organizer) is a foreign company, and Conexio-PSE’s ticket revenues fall under the payment by the proxy concept regulated under Article 52 of the Korean Value-added Tax Act. 

Therefore the recipient of the service that Conexio-PSE provides, which would be the purchasers of the tickets (participants), shall be subject to return for filing and payment of the VAT on behalf of Conexio-PSE, excluding the circumstance where the services supplied are delivered to a taxable business. Hence, the payment scheme is split in two categories as follows;

If the participant falls under the category (a), the participant is exempt from any filing or payment duties pertaining to the tickets, including the duty of payment by the proxy. On the other hand, if the participant falls under the category (b), the participant should file the return on the payment by proxy, along with the payment of the VAT amount. Please note that for category (b), the VAT amount paid by the proxy will simultaneously be reflected in the deductible input VAT amount of its VAT tax return, which means that there will not be any physical inflow/outflow of the VAT amount for the proxy. If VAT is applicable, the VAT rate is 10%, as mentioned on the invoice.

When it comes to determining whether it is taxable or non-taxable, Article 26 of the Korean Value-added Tax Act stipulates the specific cases of tax-exempt services, which includes but are not limited to, educational services by schools, private teaching institutes, private learning centers, training centers, teaching schools or other nonprofit organizations, which are licensed or authorized by, registered with, or reported to the competent authorities.

Therefore, universities and tax-exempt institutes will generally fall under the category (b), however it is notable that if the goods or services provided to universities are taxable, then the universities in this case shall fall under the category (a). Similarly, private companies and institutes that deliver the service to taxable business should follow category (a). 

How do I make the payment to the Korean tax authorities?

In terms of compliance procedures, the proxy should file for the VAT amount by proxy during the preliminary or final VAT return where the payment date belongs to the head of the tax office having jurisdiction over the place of business or the address at which the value-added tax is collected, either electronically (Hometax portal, 국세청 홈택스 (https://hometax.go.kr) or manually by mail. The proxy needs to submit the return on payment by proxy along with the preliminary or final VAT return.

However, please note that the portal is only provided in Korean language so practical issues may lie on accessing the website and going through the filing by the foreign corporation or non-resident. If necessary, please contact the conference organizers for an address of a Korean tax authority to assist you with the filing.