Your Agency Has to Send You a Statement Now — Even If You Never Ask

6 min read

If you're signed to a Korean modeling, acting or entertainment agency, there used to be exactly one way to see the math behind what you were paid: ask for it. Since 2025, that's no longer true. The agency now has to send it to you — in writing, at least once a year — whether you ask or not.

  • 1× a year, minimumHow often a registered agency must send the statement, counted from your contract date
  • No request neededThe old rule required you to ask first. The new one doesn't.
  • In writingPaper, email or an electronic document — being shown a screen isn't enough

What changed, and when

Korea's 대중문화예술산업발전법 (Act on the Development of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry) has long given performers a right to see their own accounting records. Article 14(2) requires a 대중문화예술기획업자 — a registered talent, modeling or entertainment agency — to disclose accounting details "without delay" if the performer asks for them. The gap was that nothing happened if you didn't ask, and plenty of performers didn't know to.

An amendment to Article 14 closed that gap, with its no-request duty taking effect in April 2025. The mechanics — exactly what has to be in the document and how it has to reach you — were set out the following August, when Article 2-3 of the Act's enforcement decree (시행령 제2조의3) was newly added. Checked against secondary legal reporting on both provisions in October 2026, since the official text wasn't reachable while confirming this guide: the law firm commentary and news coverage agree on the same shape, point to the same article numbers, and track the same timeline, which is the basis for what follows. Confirm the current wording yourself at law.go.kr before relying on it for a dispute.

Before 2025 an agency only had to show a performer their accounting records if the performer asked. Since the 2025 amendment and its enforcement decree, the agency must send a written statement at least once a year without being asked. Before 2025 Only if you asked Since 2025 Once a year, no ask needed Written, not just shown Paper, e-document, post or email
The right to ask already existed. 2025 added a right to be told, unasked.
What the clock runs on The yearly count starts from the date your service contract was signed, not the calendar year. If you signed in June, your statement is due around June, not January.

What the statement actually has to contain

Per the enforcement decree, the once-a-year document an agency sends isn't a casual summary — it has four required pieces, tied to specific paragraphs of Article 14 of the Act itself.

The annual statement a Korean entertainment agency must send a performer has to include: accounting records tied to that performer, any amount a third party paid the agency for their work, what the agency still owes them, and when that payment is due. Accounting records Ledger entries tied to you Third-party payments What brands paid the agency for you Remuneration owed What the agency still owes you Payment due date When that remuneration is due
Four required fields, each one a step you could otherwise only guess at.

One detail the reporting on the decree is consistent about: "disclosure" has to mean a document you can keep — paper, an electronic file, or something sent by post or email. Some agencies had reportedly been letting performers view a settlement sheet on a screen without handing over a copy, on the theory that nothing in the old rule said otherwise. The new decree is specifically written to close that reading.

What we couldn't confirm Reporting on the amendment mentions a fine for violations of Article 14, but sources disagree on whether it attaches to this disclosure duty specifically or to late payment of remuneration under a related clause, and we couldn't verify the figure against the Act's own text. Don't rely on a penalty amount from this guide — if an agency isn't complying, that's a question for KAWF's dispute mediation line, not a number to quote back at them.

Who this actually covers

This isn't one of the welfare-foundation subsidies we've covered before, where certification gates most work-visa holders out before the benefit even starts. Article 14 is a duty on the agency itself, built into the Act that governs every registered 대중문화예술기획업자 — the same registration our talent agency verification guide explains how to check. The Act defines who counts as a performer by the work, not by nationality, the same scope our standard exclusive contract guide found when it compared the government's own template against what agencies hand foreign signees. If you're a model, actor or creator under a written contract with a registered agency, this applies to you the same way it applies to a Korean national in the same seat — though if your specific arrangement is informal, or you're unsure whether your agency is even registered under this Act, that's worth confirming directly before assuming the right applies.

Paid directly by a brand

A one-off campaign fee with no agency in the chain has no Article 14 statement coming, because there's no 기획업자 relationship for the law to attach to.

Signed with a registered agency

A written service or exclusive contract with a 대중문화예술기획업자 is exactly what Article 14 is built around — this is your statement.

What Soo House sees

Soo House is the platform where foreign resident creators, models and performers in Korea find and complete paid brand campaigns through Discover — brand pays creator directly, with nothing routed through an agency in between. Our Become a Backup Dancer Class and 2026 Beauty Creative Force cohort both exist to get members into exactly that kind of paid work in the first place.

What we hear from members isn't usually about Discover's own payouts, which are itemized automatically. It's the agency work that sits alongside it — a modeling booking, a drama extra role, a management deal an expat member signed outside Soo House entirely — where the only record of what was earned lived in someone else's spreadsheet. That's the exact gap this rule is meant to close, and it's worth knowing it exists even if your agency never mentions it.

Your Next Hop

If you're signed to an agency and can't remember the last time you got a written accounting statement, that's worth raising with them directly — ask when your last Article 14 disclosure was sent, and ask for one if it's been over a year since your contract date.

Checked in October 2026 against secondary legal reporting on Korea's Act on the Development of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry (대중문화예술산업발전법) Article 14 and its 2025 enforcement decree amendment (시행령 제2조의3): a Kim & Chang insights summary of the amendment's committee passage, a lawnb.com report citing the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's March 2025 enforcement-decree notice and its proposed April 2025 effective date, and a follaw.co.kr listing of enforcement-decree Article 2-3 giving its contents, its "본조신설 2025.4.22" annotation, and 대통령령 제35689호 (promulgated 2025.07.31, effective 2025.08.01). We were not able to load the Act or decree's live text directly from law.go.kr while preparing this guide — confirm the current wording there, or with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, before treating any date or figure here as final. This is general information, not legal advice.

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