Can foreigners hire Korean employees remotely? Yes, any foreigners or foreign companies can hire Korean national employees from overseas.
Many foreigners or foreign companies I’ve met are worried about the Korean labor environment and hesitate to set up a company in Korea. For certain cases, Koreans can be directly employed by any foreigners and work in Korea. There’re foreign IT, consulting, and gaming companies who directly hire Koreans from overseas and arrange salary payments to those Koreans using our services. We define this type of employment as “Class B” employment in Korea.
Class B employment is beneficial to those foreigners who wishes directly hire Koreans from the overseas, since they can avoid labor issues in Korea. Also Korean social security enrollments are required for Class B employment.
The employee is required to declare Class B employment income annually or on a monthly basis, arrange income tax payments on a voluntary basis. By doing this voluntary reporting process, the employee will be able to get 5% income tax credit (capped at KRW 1 million per individual per year) – known as “Class B income tax credit.”
In the rapidly changing global employment market, this Class B employment has become relatively common in Korea for the past few years.
For more information, please contact us.