Enter a freelance fee paid in Korea to see the 3% income tax and 0.3% local income tax withheld and the amount that actually reaches you. Enter the amount you want to receive and it works back to the smallest fee to invoice, including the 10 won rounding rule, and compares 3.3% business income with 8.8% other income. Everything runs in your browser.
Pay for ongoing, repeated work such as contract projects. 3% of the fee is withheld as income tax and 10% of that as local income tax.
Income tax = fee × 3% → drop under 10 won
1,000,000 × 3% = 30,000 → 30,000원
Local income tax = income tax × 10% → drop under 10 won
30,000 × 10% = 3,000 → 3,000원
1,000,000 − 33,000 = 967,000원
You do not choose the type: the nature of the income (ongoing and repeated or not) decides it.
Withholding is a prepayment. On the following May's global income tax return, annual revenue, expenses and other income are taken into account and you may be refunded or owe more.
This is a reference tool for the tax withheld at the time of payment in Korea. Tax-invoice deals by VAT-registered businesses, other deductions such as employment insurance, and the annual income tax settlement are not included.
When a freelancer's fee counts as business income in Korea, the payer withholds 3% of the fee as income tax (Income Tax Act, Art. 129(1)(3)). Local income tax of 10% of that income tax is withheld at the same time (Local Tax Act, Art. 103-13), so the total is 3.3% of the fee. There is no single 3.3% rate; it is 3% plus 0.3%.
Each tax drops anything below 10 won (National Treasury Management Act, Art. 47). The income tax is calculated and rounded down first, and the local income tax is 10% of that rounded figure, rounded down again. That is why the real withholding can differ by a few won from the fee multiplied by 0.033.
For the same reason, dividing your target net pay by 0.967 does not give the exact fee. For a net payout of 3,000,000 won the division gives 3,102,379 won, but the smallest fee that actually leaves 3,000,000 won is 3,102,370 won. The reverse mode here searches for that smallest fee directly instead of dividing.
3.3% is withholding on business income and 8.8% is withholding on other income. Pay for work done on an ongoing, repeated basis is business income; pay for a one-off lecture or a single article with no employment relationship is other income (Income Tax Act, Art. 21(1)(15) and (19)). The payer does not get to choose: the nature of the income decides.
For manuscript and lecture fees counted as other income, 60% of the amount received is treated as a necessary expense (Enforcement Decree, Art. 87(1-2)). The remaining 40% is the taxable other income, which bears 20% income tax plus 10% of that as local income tax. Against the full fee that is 40% × 22% = 8.8%.
Other income of 50,000 won or less per payment is not taxed (Income Tax Act, Art. 84). After the 60% deemed expense, that means a lecture or manuscript fee of 125,000 won or less has nothing withheld.
If your total other income for the year is 3 million won or less, you can choose either to let the withholding settle the tax (separate taxation) or to add it to your other income on the annual return (Income Tax Act, Art. 14(3)(8)). People with little other income often come out ahead by adding it in.
Tax withheld at 3.3% is a prepayment, not the final bill. Anyone with business income files a global income tax return in May of the following year, where the year's revenue, expenses, other income and deductions are all taken into account and the real tax is recalculated.
If the real tax is lower than what was withheld, the difference is refunded; if it is higher, you pay the rest. Freelancers with modest revenue and no other income are often refunded, while higher earners or people who also have a salary can owe more.
This calculator stops at the amount withheld when you are paid. Whether you get money back or owe more in May depends on your annual revenue, expenses and other income, so check it on the Hometax filing screen or with a tax professional.
Quote 3 million won and a little over 2.9 million reaches your account. Budget living costs and fixed expenses from the net figure.
3,000,000 ÷ 0.967 gives 3,102,379 won. Because of the 10 won rounding, a fee 9 won lower already leaves the same net pay.
Paid as business income, the same 500,000 won would leave 483,500 won. Which applies depends on the nature of the income, so you cannot simply pick the better one.
Up to a fee of 125,000 won the taxable amount stays at or below 50,000 won, so no tax applies. Past that line, income tax starts at 10,000 won.
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What it is, who it's for, how it works and why you'd use it.
A Korea Freelancer Tax Calculator subtracts the income tax and local income tax withheld from a freelance fee, lecture fee or manuscript fee paid in Korea to show net pay, and works back from a target net pay to the smallest fee that delivers it.
It is for freelance designers, developers and PMs working in Korea, employees who give talks or write articles on the side, and staff who pay freelancers and need to calculate the withholding.
For business income it takes 3% of the fee as income tax; for other income it takes 20% of the fee after a 60% deemed expense. It drops anything under 10 won, adds 10% of that income tax as local income tax and drops anything under 10 won again. The reverse mode searches for the smallest fee whose net pay reaches the target.
Because of the 10 won rounding, dividing your target by 0.967 does not give the exact fee, and the same fee leaves very different net pay at 3.3% and 8.8%. It answers both in seconds before you quote or sign.