The 3.3% isn't the whole story: taxes for creators, models and actors in Korea

8 min read

The fee lands with a number missing from it. Whoever paid you — a brand, an agency, a production company — withheld a slice before it reached your account, and what shows up in your Korean bank app is the net.

For a lot of expat creators, models and actors doing paid work here, that withholding line is where the tax question starts and ends. It shouldn't be. It's a deposit against a bill that gets settled later, and depending on how your work is shaped, you may also owe a business registration you don't yet have.

  • 3.3%Typically withheld from a regular, repeat booking (사업소득)
  • ~8.8%Typically withheld from a genuine one-off fee (기타소득)
  • 20 daysTo register a business once the work stops being one-off

Two different withholdings, and they mean different things

Korea's tax code splits paid work without an employment contract into two boxes, and which one you're in changes both the rate withheld and what you owe later.

A one-off, occasional fee — you did one shoot, one shout-out, one gig, with no expectation of it repeating — is 기타소득, other income. The payer withholds 20% income tax on a deemed 40% of the fee (the other 60% is treated as expenses automatically, no receipts needed), which nets out to roughly 8.8% withheld once the 10% local surtax is added. The National Tax Service sets this out directly for one-off personal-service fees.

Regular, repeat bookings — the same brand keeps calling, or you're doing this kind of work as an ongoing thing — are 사업소득, business income, whether or not you've filed any paperwork to call yourself a business. The NTS distinguishes the two on exactly this basis: continuous and repeated (계속적, 반복적) service for a fee is business income; a one-time, incidental fee is other income. Business income is withheld at a flat 3%, plus a 0.3% local surtax — the 3.3% most freelancers in Korea recognise on sight.

A one-off fee is withheld at roughly 8.8 percent as other income, a regular booking is withheld at 3.3 percent as business income, and both get reconciled the same way in May One-off gig No pattern yet Other income ~8.8% withheld Repeat gigs Ongoing pattern Business income ~3.3% withheld May: file it Comprehensive income tax reconciles whichever you had
Withholding is never the final number either way — it's an advance, reconciled every May.
Withheld isn't the same as settled Both rates are advances, not bills. If 8.8% or 3.3% was withheld and your actual liability is lower — which it usually is, once expenses and deductions are counted — filing is how the difference comes back. Not filing means simply losing it. This is the same mechanism our year-end tax settlement guide covers for salaried work — business income just skips the employer step and goes straight to the May filing.

When "repeat" turns into "register a business"

There's no single follower count or fee amount that flips the switch. What flips it is the pattern the NTS already uses to sort 기타소득 from 사업소득: is this continuing, or was it one thing that happened once?

A single paid shoot for a friend's café is one thing that happened once. A second brand deal three months later, taken while the first is still live on your feed, is a pattern. Once you're there, Korean tax law expects a 사업자등록 — a business registration — even if you never call yourself a business owner.

The National Tax Service's own guidance is specific about creators: it splits 1인 미디어 콘텐츠 창작자 (solo media creators) into two registration codes, and the difference is about facilities and staff, not fame.

921505 — taxable

You employ someone, or run content through a studio, editing setup or other physical facility. VAT applies; you file it like any taxable business, on top of the May income-tax filing.

Simplified expense rate: 73.8% of revenue is deemed cost if you don't track your own.

940306 — tax-exempt

No staff, no dedicated facility — you shoot, edit and post yourself. No VAT return, but you still file an annual business-status report and the May income-tax filing.

Simplified expense rate: 64.1% of revenue is deemed cost if you don't track your own.

Both paths land in the same place every May: a 종합소득세, comprehensive income tax, filing. Neither one exempts you from it — the NTS states plainly that taxable and exempt creators alike must file. For 2026, the filing window runs from 1 May to 1 June (the usual 31 May deadline falls on a Sunday, pushing it a day).

Registering doesn't override your visa A business registration is a tax-office matter; whether your visa status lets you run one is an immigration matter, and they don't check each other automatically. Most D and E statuses restrict independent business activity by default — the paperwork the tax office accepts doesn't mean immigration has cleared it. If you're on a student, jobseeker or employer-tied visa, confirm with your immigration office before you register anything, and see our visa FAQ for which statuses carry broad work rights on their own.

Registering, in practice

The National Tax Service's process is the same one any sole proprietor in Korea follows, with one extra document for a foreign resident:

  • When: before you start, or within 20 days of starting — the NTS states this as the standard window for any business registration.
  • Where: Hometax online, or in person at the tax office covering your registered address.
  • What you bring: your 외국인등록증 (Alien Registration Card, or the mobile version) in place of the resident registration number a Korean applicant would use, plus whatever supports the business code you're registering under.
  • What comes back: a business registration number, issued within a few days, which then goes on every invoice and every contract where a brand needs to report the fee.
Once bookings repeat, register within 20 days, have every fee withheld through the year, then reconcile everything in the May filing Bookings repeat No longer one-off Register Within 20 days, NTS Withheld monthly 3% + 0.3% local File in May Reconciles the year
The same four steps whether you're 921505 or 940306 — only the VAT step in between differs.

What we see at Soo House

Soo House pays creators, models and performers who complete campaigns through Discover in Points, which withdraw to a Korean bank account tied to your registration number — so the "does this count as a business now" question reaches us before it reaches an accountant, usually somewhere around a member's third or fourth completed campaign.

The pattern is consistent enough to name: it's almost never the first booking that raises the question. It's the one where someone realises they've been paid by three different brands this quarter and the 3.3% line has started looking less like a fluke and more like a habit. That's the exact moment the NTS's own continuous-and-repeated test says you've crossed from 기타소득 into 사업소득 — the guide above is written for precisely that member, not for someone doing a single unpaid-for-exposure shoot.

It's also why the classes we run alongside the campaigns — Business Korean among them — spend time on invoices and rates, not only on lighting a shot. A campaign record is worth little if the fee it produced never gets reconciled into a real tax filing.

Before you register anything

Confirm your visa allows it first. A business registration your status doesn't support is a problem you're creating, not solving.

Don't register speculatively. One paid shoot doesn't need a business number. Wait until the pattern is real — the NTS's own test (continuous, repeated) is the one to apply to yourself.

Keep every invoice and payment record. Whichever expense rate you use, the May filing wants a paper trail, and Hometax's simplified system only pre-fills what card and platform payments already report — cash and foreign transfers, it will not have.

Ask which code fits before you pick one. 921505 versus 940306 turns on whether you employ anyone or run a dedicated setup, not on how big your following is. Getting it wrong at registration is a correction later, not a disaster, but it's paperwork you can avoid.

If you're weighing whether a specific booking needs E-6 arts-and-entertainment status in the first place, our E-6 visa guide covers that question, and the creator growth guide covers what campaigns actually pay before tax touches them at all.

Checked in August 2026 against the National Tax Service: withholding rates for 사업소득 and 기타소득, the 20-day business registration window, and the 921505/940306 solo-creator codes with their simplified expense rates are all quoted from nts.go.kr pages current as of this check. The 2026 comprehensive income tax filing window (1 May – 1 June) follows the standard statutory period adjusted for the weekend, as reported consistently by Korean tax-filing services — confirm the exact date on Hometax or with the NTS English helpline, 1588-0560, before filing. Tax rules and thresholds change yearly and individual circumstances vary; this is general information, not tax advice.

Keep reading