Hello everyone, first time poster here, and would be extremely grateful for any advice on this. Kinda hoping someone else may have been through a similar situation!!
My story is: I am working in Korea on an E2 visa, within the public school system. I have been here for a few years, and would dearly love to stay longer. Prior to coming to Korea, I had been working in the Arts (ultra unsuccessfully) and had self-employed status back home. I never made any money bar a few coins here and there. But this situation has, as of this year, changed. I now find myself in the position of having a small (globally earned) income due to royalties/digital etc. This of course ought to be most welcome news. But it is giving me a major headache, concerning what I do at the end of the tax year.
Concerning my contract: I know that should my employers find out I have income from outside my school, I risk being fired/losing my visa and so on. On the other hand, if I do not declare my additional income at the end of the tax year, I could get in trouble that way, too. I would love to be able to pay my additional tax, if I could have any confidence that my Office of Education would not find out/immediately be alerted. But of course, how can I know that?
I feel like any investigating I do will incriminate me, and thus I'm at a loss as to whom I might contact for advice. For instance, I would love to phone the immigration service and discuss the matter, but surely this is asking for trouble! It seems a shame that I am caught in an awkward position simply because I would like to declare my side income. I can see clearly that the obvious answer is simply "Keep quiet!", but the sum in question is not tiny, and I'm worried that should it be discovered, I could be legally in much more trouble. Perhaps worth mentioning what sort of sums I'm talking: I would estimate that this year I will make 10,000,000 won from self-employment. It is, as I said, royalties, nothing to do with teaching. And there is nothing I can do to stop it, even if I wished to. The money is at present not coming directly into Korea, so there is no obvious alert this side. But still I feel very uncomfortable in this position, because I would like my money to be legitimate.
If anyone could give me any advice, has been in a similar position, etc. I would truly be grateful. This is keeping me from sleeping at present!
Specifically, I suppose my questions are:
a) Do I have any best/sensible move in this position?
b) My contract with the Office of Education forbids any (external) paid work, I understand that. What I'm curious about is, does my E-2 visa itself also forbid it? In other words, were I to choose to leave EPIK and work instead for a hagwon in Korea, with an owner who was accepting of my situation, would I be able to hold onto my visa and declare my self-employed earnings each year? Or does the visa also forbid any such earned/declared income?
c) I had considered declaring and paying the self-employment earnings back home - in the UK. However, presumably were I to do this I could not declare it in isolation, and would have to declare my full income from Korea too, meaning I would be taxed both sides. That's not a situation I'd like to find myself in. Or am I wrong about this? (Further, strictly speaking this would be wrong as I am not domiciled in the UK.)
Appreciate this is a rather long message, so if you've made it this far: thank you!
Fran.
