A National Tax Service poster promoting remote tax counseling for members of the Korean diaspora looking to return to Korea. Courtesy of National Tax Service
For many older adults who are members of the global Korean diaspora, the desire to spend their retirement years in their ancestral homeland is often complicated by a daunting, opaque obstacle: the local tax code. Fearing that the wealth they have accumulated overseas will be heavily penalized upon entry, many foreign citizens of Korean descent hesitate to pull the trigger on relocation.
To eliminate that anxiety, the National Tax Service (NTS) said Tuesday that it will launch a dedicated, one-on-one online tax counseling service starting in July. The initiative aims to dispel pervasive tax myths and ease the transition for the country's 7 million global diaspora members looking to return to Korea.
"Many overseas Koreans hesitate to return due to vague tax anxieties or outright misinformation," a spokesperson for the agency said. Common misconceptions include the belief that the Korean government automatically taxes all historic global income once a person registers as a resident, or confusion over how capital gains taxes apply to foreign real estate.
