Companies registered in mainland China cannot apply for tax refund in South Korea, except for those registered in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao

VAT mark in South Korea is VAT or TAX

The standard tax rate in South Korea: 10%

Tax Refund Scope:

• Travel expenses (hotel accommodation, catering, communications)

• Construction costs of exhibition stand

• Real estate services expenses (leasing, construction, tearing down and repairing of house, intermediary services, employment of auctioneers, architects, lawyers, surveyors, engineers, audit services, property assessments, surveys)

• Development and exploration costs (oil, natural gas, minerals)

• Conditions surveys and research expenses of land and sea-bed (earthquakes, geology, geomagnetism)

• Related expenses of overseas offices, representative offices and liaison offices (house rental, utilities, office furniture, decoration, etc.)

• DROP-SHIPPING (purchasing, transportation and manual operation expenses that produced by purchasing goods from one EU country and delivering to another)

• Import tax

• Subcontract

Non-Tax Refund Scope:

• Transportation costs

• Purchasing

Minimum Tax Refund Amount:

• Annual: 300,000 won

Valid Period of Tax Refund:

• Invoice of the current year (subjecting to the date of invoice) needs to submit tax refund application before June 30th the next year; For example: if the date of invoice is December 30th, 2010, this invoice must be submitted to the tax bureau of South Korea before June 30th, 2011 for tax refund application.  

Documents Required for Tax Refund:

• Certificate of Authorization (handled by our company and your company just needs to sign and seal)

• Tax Registration Certificate (handled by our company, signed and sealed by your company )

• Copy of Tax Registration Certificate (with official seal)

• The original invoice (electronic version of the invoice is also acceptable)

Processing Period:

• The processing period published by tax bureau of South Korea is 6 months. Usually Chinese companies can receive the tax refund payment within 6 months after submitting tax refund application.