What is South Korea's mandatory e-Tax Invoice system?
Effective: 2011-01-01 · Authority: NTS (National Tax Service)
South Korea mandates e-Tax Invoices (Jeonsa Seegeum Gyesanseo) for all VAT-registered businesses above specified revenue thresholds. Invoices must be transmitted to the National Tax Service (NTS) via certified ERP systems or the Hometax portal within one day of issuance. South Korea was one of the earliest countries to mandate real-time e-invoicing.
Which Korean businesses must use e-Tax Invoices?
Corporate taxpayers (juingong) have been required to issue e-Tax Invoices since 2012. Individual business owners (gaeinjungganggwaseje) with turnover above KRW 100 million must use e-Tax Invoices from 2022, with the threshold progressively lowered. From July 2023, all VAT-registered individual businesses must issue e-Tax Invoices.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the penalty for late e-Tax Invoice transmission in Korea?
- Invoices transmitted more than 1 day but within 3 months attract a penalty of 0.1 percent of the supply value. Invoices not transmitted within 3 months attract a 0.2 percent penalty. Failure to issue e-Tax Invoices at all attracts a 2 percent penalty of the supply value.
- Can Korean businesses use paper invoices instead of e-Tax Invoices?
- No, for mandatory scope businesses. Businesses within the mandatory scope must use e-Tax Invoices. Paper or PDF invoices are not compliant for mandatory scope transactions. Buyers cannot claim input VAT on transactions where mandatory e-Tax Invoices were not issued.
AutoFact AI is not certified by, affiliated with, or endorsed by any regulatory authority referenced on this page. References describe technical alignment with published regulatory requirements only.