Sorry Uncle Kim and Uncle Sam

So I found the IRS document 8802 and filled it out today.  For those of you who do not know it is the form that is needed to get a Certificate of Residency from the IRS.  One of the wonderful perks of teaching at a public school in Korea is you can defer up to 2 years of Korean income tax which is currently 8%.  Though the Korean tax is much lower than the 15% that would be paid in the states, with the same amount of income, it is always nice to have a break. You only need to get this IRS 8802 document filled out, send it with $35, receive the certificate, show it to your principal and you are all set.  No taxes.  From my calculations I will save myself around $450 at the current exchange rate after paying the certificate fee.  But wait it gets better.  In the snazzy financial planning course that I took on tax planning, I learned that US citizens are exempt from paying foreign income up to $91,500.  Score.  

That means that I DO NOT have to pay Uncle Sam for a good 5 months!  The only thing that will be taken from my paycheck in Korea will be for the national pension system which is 4.5%, rougly $55 a month, but I can receive that money back right before I leave.

I wondered how much I make an hour doing this teaching gig and it roughly equals $28/hour after taxes.  That is including housing at about $400/month, however, this is not including the free meals, universal health insurance (I'll blog on that later) and cultural excursions that are paid for by the program as well.   I would have to be making $35 to $40 an hour before taxes here in the states to match what I'll be getting.  Plus, I'll be in a different country!

I'd have to say this beats the pants off most of the jobs I've had so far in terms of finances.  Though I have to forgo some precious things in the States.