Korean U.S. Residents to Get Tax-Break

Home > National > Politics

print dictionary print

Korean U.S. Residents to Get Tax-Break

Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Lee Chung-bin, who is presently visiting the U.S., met with secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington on March 13 to sign an agreement on the collection of the social security tax.
People on business in the U.S. are often required to pay social security taxes twice over, once to the U.S. government and again to the Korean government in the form of income tax.
According to this new tax agreement, Koreans residing in the States for less than five years can now receive medical coverage without having to pay U.S. social security tax. Short-term Korean residents are estimated to number from 2,700 to 3,000, and until now have been paying approximately $30 million annually in social security taxes in addition to the amount of tax paid into Korean tax coffers.
In addition, for long term residents who stay in America for more than five years yet still continue to meet their Korean tax responsibilities, the aggregate sum of taxes paid into the social security system will be added to the Korean pension amount, and thus make them eligible to collect pension benefits.

by Lee Chol-hee

Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)