Korea, Rep.

Ease of Doing Business in

Korea, Rep.

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for the Republic of Korea. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region OECD high income
Income Category High income
Population 49,779,000
GNI Per Capita (US$) 20,870
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
8 9 down 1

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
82.5 81.5 down 1.0
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 24 22 up -2
Dealing with Construction Permits 26 24 up -2
Getting Electricity 3 3 No change
Registering Property 75 72 up -3
Getting Credit 12 9 up -3
Protecting Investors 49 79 up 30
Paying Taxes 30 41 up 11
Trading Across Borders 3 3 No change
Enforcing Contracts 2 2 No change
Resolving Insolvency 14 13 up -1

Economy Profile

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Paying Taxes

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This data shows the tax that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures of the administrative burden in paying taxes. These measures include the number of payments an entrepreneur must make; the number of hours spent preparing, filing, and paying; and the percentage of their profits they must pay in taxes.

DB 2013 Rank 30 DB 2012 Rank 41 Change in Rank up11
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 85.0 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 83.2 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up1.8
Indicator Korea, Rep. OECD high income OECD

The total number of tax payments per year. The indicator reflects the total number of taxes and contributions paid, the method of payment, the frequency of payment and the number of agencies involved for a standardized case during the second year of operation.

View methodology Payments (number per year)
10 -- 12

The time it takes to prepare, file and pay (or withhold) the corporate income tax, the value added tax and social security contributions (in hours per year).

View methodology Time (hours per year)
207 -- 176

The amount of taxes on profits paid by the business as a percentage of commercial profits.

View methodology Profit tax (%)
15.2 -- 15.2

The amount of taxes and mandatory contributions on labor paid by the business as a percentage of commercial profits.

View methodology Labor tax and contributions (%)
13.2 -- 23.8

The amount of taxes and mandatory contributions paid by the business as a percentage of commercial profit that are not already included in the categories of profit or labor taxes.

View methodology Other taxes (%)
1.4 -- 3.7

The total tax rate measures the amount of taxes and mandatory contributions payable by the business in the second year of operation, expressed as a share of commercial profits.

View methodology Total tax rate (% profit)
29.8 -- 42.7
Tax or mandatory contribution Payments (number) Notes on Payments Time (hours) Statutory tax rate Tax base Total tax rate (% profit) Notes on TTR
Corporate income tax 1 online filing 94 11% (up to KRW 200 million and includes 10% surtax), 24.2% (KRW 200 million to 20 billion and includes 10% surtax) taxable profit 15.2
Employer paid - National pension 1 online filing 74 5% gross salaries 5.1
Employer paid - Accident compensation insurance 0 paid jointly 3% gross salaries 3.5
Employer paid - National health insurance 0 paid jointly 5% gross salaries 3.2
Fuel tax 1 various rates included in the price of fuel 1.1
Employer paid - Unemployment insurance 0 paid jointly 1% gross salaries 0.9
Local income tax 1 online filing 1% gross salaries 0.6
Property tax 1 0.3% (building), 0.24%-4.8% (land), 0.14% (city planning) statutory standard price 0.2
Community facility tax 1 0.04%-0.12% statutory standard price of building 0.1
Stamp duty 1 various rates contract value 0 small amount
Value added tax (VAT) 1 online filing 39 10% net sales 0 not included
Per capita resident tax 1 62,500 per entity + KRW 250 per ㎡ of business place per entity 0
Automobile tax 1 46,800 per truck per vehicle 0
Totals: 10 207 29.8

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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